Connections Part 1: Morning
by Ahnura
Summary: Breaking ties with her village was one of the hardest things Sakura Haruno had to do in her life. Trying to survive with Akatsuki’s very own Deidara may prove to be even more challenging. Updated. DeiSaku
1. Gone

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

Note: This story is being edited.

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_The sun rises, leaking yellow light over the peaceful village of Konoha. She leaves in a haste. _

_No one can stop her._

_-_

_The blistering sun rises to sit in the center of the blue sky, taking its time to set. He can't complete his goal. His target is dead. Gone._

_There's nothing left._

_-_

_The sun is finally disappeared over the horizon. It's dark. So dark._

_Silver metal clashes in the dark and the earth stained red. Silver like the headbands engraved with the leaf symbol. Red, like the clouds on their cloaks._

_They escape to find their fortunes together._

_-_

_Look over the pieces once. They don't fit, do they?_

_Twice, three times._

_Nothing?_

_That's not the case. You'll find out sooner or later that they do fit. They do end up..._

_Connecting._

**Connections:**

Part One: Morning

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"There's nothing any of them can say or do to make me _stay_."

The moon hung high in the sky, illuminating her path and theirs in the dense wooded area of the Fire Country. The air was cool; it was spring time, but ominous, dark clouds loomed overhead. But it was quiet, save for the occasion rustling of the leaves in the forest. A rabbit bound across a clearing, dug at the ground, until—

_Snap_

"Damn it."

The rabbit fled the scene as a flying star flew across the clearing. The single weapon was soon followed by an entire barrage of shuriken. Her green eyes flashed. His blue eyes widened as he witnessed her kunai with paper tied to the end cut through the air.

**BOOM**

Blood splattered _everywhere_. Onto the trees. Onto ground. Onto her. She stood, relaxing her fighting stand. The wind caught up again. Pink hair flew. She turned to leave. The carcasses that littered the ground bled and bled. But she didn't care. She made a move to jump, to continue her journey. To leave the place that she called home.

"Sakura-chan! _SAKURA-CHAN!" _

"I'm not going with you, Naruto." She said as she watched her team mate emerge from behind the trees. Shaking his head, Naruto cried, "He didn't _mean_ any of that. Sakura-chan, you know teme. He's a fucking retard. He doesn't _know._"

"I'm not going with you," She repeated and turned to leave. "I'm sorry. I... I need to leave."

"_NO!_" Naruto screamed as he ran towards her. She was making hand signs at an alarming pace. "You can't go! Sakura!!"

"I promise to see you become Rokudaime." Sakura smiled sadly as her last hand seal was finished. Naruto was just about an arms length away from her when the girl disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Naruto's cerulean eyes widened at the nothing before him.

He clenched his fists until his knuckles went white before shouting into the darkness.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

.:.:.

The Gods were not on her side. Minutes after she escaped the bloody scene with Naruto, the heavens began to pour down on her. She kept on walking, despite how much her body screamed for rest. Her feet were on the verge of bleeding and her lungs were on fire. She went forward for another half hour before relenting to the need for rest. She looked up at the sky and shuddered when she saw a bolt of lightning crack in the sky. Sakura looked around for a small tree, and thankfully, she was granted one in a young oak that was easily dwarfed by the ancient trees. She approached the tree, and leaned on the bark for a moment before proceeding up the tree into the branches. That is where she lost all feeling in her body; it went numb.

The kunoichi closed her eyes and thought about her decision. Moreover, she thought about exactly _why _she left. It was several days before she left, she remembered it clearly.

...

"_Morning, Sasuke." Sakura greeted as she walked up the old bridge that Team 7 waited every day for their perpetually late but dear and darling sensei. The team had gotten older, matured vastly, and gotten stronger. The said boy noticed the missing suffix that Sakura usually added to his name._

"_Hn." He replied as he looked over the edge of the bridge to the water below as he lazily peeled off a layer of fading red paint and dropped it into the water. The youngest Uchiha watched as it drifted off._

"_How long are you on probation?" Sakura asked, bringing up the memory of the day she and Naruto had brought their friend back to Konoha. She and Naruto both cried that day; they were all together again. Yet, Sasuke remained indifferent, and he never told a soul why. That was a little around 3 months ago, and Sasuke was still under house arrest. Even now, there were Black Ops ANBU monitoring Sasuke's every move. He was under such close surveillance that every action he made was written down on a scroll to be recorded. _

"_2 months." He answered. She smiled gently as she leaned over the rail next to him. She was tiny compared to him, she noticed. The dark haired man stood a good head taller than her.__ He caught her staring and furrowed his brow._

"_Hn." _

"_Hey, Sasuke?"_

"_What?"_

"_Um," The girl began as a blush crept over her cheeks. She hadn't done anything this bold in a very long time. "Do you want to go out to get a bite to eat later?"_

"_No."_

_Sakura closed her eyes as her heart sank._

_Did he still think that she was a weakling, especially after all of these years?_

"_Why not?"_

_Sasuke glared at her as he replied, "You know that's unnecessary. Instead of asking me out on a date, why don't you go make yourself actually useful for once and train?" _

"_I could break your skull if I wanted to, Uchiha!" Sakura growled as her eyes flashed dangerously as she followed him off the bridge. She glared at his back until they stopped at a clearing._

"_I'd like to see you try."_

_Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."_

"_Hn."_

_Sakura focused chakra into her hand before throwing it at Sasuke's head._ _Sasuke quickly dodged it, her fist plunged into the ground._ _She crumbled the ground beneath her as easily as a child would crumble a cookie._ _The Uchiha__ raised an eyebrow at this._ _Sakura smirked and pulled her fist from the ground. She dusted off the offending hand and placed it on her hip. _

"_Am I still weak, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, confident in her abilities. The skills she had acquired from 6 years of hard work under the tutelage of the Godaime Hokage. The talents that had brought him back home. _ _Sasuke looked at her with cold eyes, however._

"_You're the weakest Shinobi I've seen in my life to date.__"_

_That hit a nerve. _

"_You...Self-centered revenge crazed idiot..." Sakura growled. "Do you have any idea how long I have trained while you fucked around with Orochimaru and—"_

"_Do I look like I care?" Sasuke interrupted coldly._ _Sakura glared as he continued. "You and Naruto took me back to this damn place when I was _soclose_ to killing Itachi. You and Naruto are both useless to me. You're just another fangirl. So why don't you do use _both_ a favor and leave? You're useless to me, your team, _and_ this damn village, making your way around with freebies and shit."_

_He pointed towards the tall red building in the distance that was Hokage Tower._

"_The elders wouldn't give you a second _glance_ for missions if you weren't Tsunade's apprentice."_

_She wanted so badly to punch his face in. How _dare_ he insult her. Her fist twitched, but she quelled her fiery temper and simply walked away._

"_Where are you going?" Sasuke asked._

_Sakura didn't answer. She made several hand signs before disappearing._

.:.:.

Sakura soon fell into a light sleep against the tree with her dark coat on her head to shield her from the downpour. She heard the nocturnal birds start chirping around her as she listened to them fly off. A moment later, she heard the flapping of what she guessed was a large bird flying against the roaring wind and rain. She didn't bother to wake up until—

"Is this the girl that we're looking for?" A middle pitched but masculine voice asked.

"I don't know, but I think that she looks like it." Another voice squeaked.

Sakura's eyes snapped open to see two men approaching her, each wearing a black cloak with a familiar pattern printed on it. Clouds the color of blood. She quickly analyzed them, rubbing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She could only observe that one had long blonde hair while the other had short, spiked hair.

"Nighty night girl, un." The blonde sneered as Sakura watched him kneel down in front of her. She weakly pushed him away; she hadn't anymore chakra left over for her to use. She didn't stand a chance, especially when he pressed a pressure point on her neck. She groaned as one last thought came across her mind before her eyes closed.

_Not again..._

The kunoichi slumped over, out cold. Picking up Sakura bridal style, the man with the short hair looked over to the blonde. Her face was obscured by her wet pink tresses and the cover of night.

"Deidara-Sempai, can we go now?" He asked as he adjusted her a little bit so that he was a bit more comfortable.

"Hurry up you idiot, or I'll leave you here, un." Deidara snarled as he jumped onto the giant clay falcon.

"Ok!" Tobi chirped as he hopped onto the bird as well. Deidara quickly commanded the bird to take off into the sky, keeping safe that he stood low to the trees. He didn't want to get electrocuted by a bolt of lightning, so staying lower than the highest point from the ground was necessary. He looked back at Tobi and the girl and shook his head.

"Kami," He sighed as he pulled off his cloak and handed it to Tobi. "Put this on her. She's gonna catch something at this rate, un." He said as his drenched blonde hair whipped around his face. Tobi put the cloak over Sakura's shoulders and looked at Deidara.

"Ne, Sempai, you're such a gentleman!" He giggled. Deidara twitched and glared.

"Leader said 'Bring the girl back, _alive_', un. I don't want to have to explain myself if we end up hauling around a dead body, dumbass," He explained and crossed his arms as he turned away. Tobi smiled underneath his orange mask as they flew off towards the Akatsuki compound.


	2. Drop

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

R&R!

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"Nnn.." Sakura moaned. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see anything. She propped against what felt like a wall, and her body was bound by what seemed to be string. She growled as she tried to break her bonds. However, when she tried to move, a little of her energy sapped out of her.

_Chakra rope?_

Sakura began to panic a little at the realization. She was someone's captive; their prisoner. The rosette haired girl soon had another thought run through her mind: Where was she?

"She's awake!" A voice chirped happily.

"Welcome to the Akatsuki Warren, Haruno Sakura." Another voice.

"Wha-Akatsuki?!" Sakura hissed, hiding her shock. "What do you want from me?"

"We heard that you've recently defected from your village." The same voice replied. "You were Tsunade's medical student in training. You might even rival her skills now."

"I have and I was her student." She replied, taking care to be modest. She didn't want her sharp tongue getting her killed.

"Heh." The voice chuckled darkly. "Well, we have two options for you, Sakura-san."

Sakura sighed, "The first would be...?"

"Join the Akatsuki."

"And the second?"

"The second option would be that we kill you right now."

"Oh." Sakura said, a little shaken now. She weighed out her options.

She didn't have any chakra at all, thanks to her bindings. She thought about her quest to get stronger. They could do that. Sakura then pondered about her friends. She sighed with a heavy heart.

Her friends didn't care. They went off and called her a fan girl as well when she voiced her anger towards the youngest Uchiha. And they weren't even kidding. They _meant_ it.

"Take the blind fold off of me. I accept your offer."

Just as she commanded, the deed was done. The blindfold slid off of her face and fell onto the ground with a soft clatter.

Sakura glanced down at the blindfold. It wasn't a blindfold actually. It was her hitai-ate. She looked back up to take a glance at her surroundings. Sakura couldn't really see anything, due to the dimness of the room, but she could make out several outlines of the people in the room with her. Sakura frowned.

"It's dark in here. Can I see who was talking to me?"

There was a spark near one of the walls. The room was shortly engulfed in light soon after. After getting adjusted to the sudden flash of light, Sakura looked around again. She was correct about other people being in the room with her. Sakura recognized only Kisame from the bingo book she read when Kakashi wasn't around. Perched atop the massive hand of an enormous statue was a man with several piercings and fiery orange hair. She couldn't place the blonde's name anymore for some reason.

"Good girl, you made the right decision. I am Pein." He said as he tossed her a ring. It flew and landed on her lap. Sakura looked down at the ring. It had the kanji for 'sky' on it. "However, you will address me as 'Sir' or 'Leader.'"

She nodded her head dumbly. "Alright...Could someone untie me?"

"Your strength is almost been sapped completely from the ropes, so you won't be able to move much." He stated as she simple shrugged.

"That's fine."

There was a snap of the fingers and her bounds dissolved into thin air. Sakura rubbed her arms and then reached for the ring and her headband. She looked over the scar on her headband before pocketing it.

"Left pinky finger," The orange haired man said. Sakura looked at a loss for a moment.

"Pardon?" She asked.

He chuckled again and said, "That's the finger you put the ring on."

"Oh, right. Ok." She said lamely as she slid the ring onto her finger.

Leader smirked and looked over to a certain blonde arsonist.

"Deidara, you've been whining about a new partner. Congratulations, Sakura, you are now partnered up with Deidara."

Both said shinobi stole a quick glance at their new 'partner'. She finally put together who he was; the blonde was the partner of Sasori whom she killed 3 years ago.

"Deidara, take her to try on the cloaks." Leader finally said.

The said blonde nodded and turned towards the new member. "Follow me, un."

Sakura attempted to stand, but quickly crumpled to her knees. She cursed at her legs that wouldn't obey her and tried to stand up again. She sank to the concrete as her legs were unstable.

"Aa, that's right. No more energy for you incase you wanted to punch our faces in." Deidara smirked. "I'll carry you."

"Um," Sakura began as she looked a bit shocked at the nice gesture. "That's ok..."

"I'll drag you then, un." Deidara said, half jokingly, as he approached her.

"Play nice," The Leader said as Deidara picked her up and threw her onto his shoulder.

"H-Hey, I can move on my own," Sakura said as Deidara started walking.

"Don't kid me, brat." Deidara sighed. Sakura glared at his back. He walked down a hallway and stopped at a door. He dropped her onto the ground gently enough so she wouldn't break anything, but hard enough to make it still hurt.

Sakura glared daggers into his back as he rummaged through the closet. After searching, he produced a cloak.

Tossing it to her, Sakura caught the cloak and looked down at it. She stared at the fabric for a while.

"You know, you don't have to stare at it all day, brat, un. Try it on so if it doesn't fit, I can get you another." Deidara said as he crossed his arms.

Sakura looked up and glared at Deidara once again before sliding into the cloak.

"It fits." Sakura stated as she flapped her arms up and down a few times.

"Good." Deidara replied as knelt down to pick her up. "Stop flapping your arms like that; you look like a chicken, un."

Sakura growled as he put her over his shoulder again. It was quiet until Deidara asked her something.

"By the way, did you dye your hair that awful shade of pink, or is it natural?"

He's dead.

"That's mean." She hissed at him. "I got this _awful_ hair from my dead mother."

Deidara rolled his eyes. "Damn, did you get your non-existent rack from her too?"

A vein popped on Sakura's head as she snapped, "Shut up! You look like woman!"

Deidara stopped dead in his tracks and dropped her again.

"Ow!"

"What did you call me, un?" Deidara's tone was cold and was laced with malice as he looked down at her.

Sakura smirked. She mentally noted on what it took to hit a nerve with this guy. "I said that you look like a woman."

Deidara glared at her. "Hn, if I were a woman, then I'd be a lot better looking than you, brat. Un."

Sakura glared as he picked her up again, bridal style this time. Sakura raised her hand and brought it down on the fair skin on his cheek.

**SMACK.**

"FUCK! What the hell was that for!?" Deidara bellowed as they both fell over.

Sakura loomed over him as she snapped, "That was for being a rude and vain asshole!"

"Bitch, un." Deidara hissed as he stood back up and uncovered the reddening side of his face.

Sakura rolled her emerald green eyes at his comment.

"I'm dragging you now."

"What? You're going to ruin the cloak!" Sakura hissed. Deidara glared as he put her in the most uncomfortable position over his shoulder. She screamed profanities at him until they reached another door. Engraved on the polished wood was a flower.

Deidara opened the door and dropped her on the bed.

"Oof!" Sakura squeaked.

Deidara snorted before tossing a scroll to her as she got up. Sakura caught the scroll and looked at Deidara with questioning eyes.

"A map of the base, un." Deidara answered as though he had read her mind. "Don't open any closed doors and only enter a closed door if you've been invited in. While walking around the base, wear the cloak, 'else you'll get killed, un."

"Where's your room?" Sakura asked curiously.

"3 doors down to the left." Deidara answered. With that, he closed the door and left.

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The room was big enough. It had some very nice furnishing and even a window. And maybe her own bathroom.

Sakura noticed a note on the table next to her bed. She leaned over and got it.

'_Sakura-san_

_Move the furniture around as you like. You have your own bathroom. Don't lose the map. You will get lost._ '

Sakura guessed that the man in the shadows wrote it. She put it down and went to sleep.

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Chapter two's done.


	3. Rude awakening

Sakura woke to a loud banging sound on her door. She growled angrily as she opened her eyes, and gasped at her surroundings. Sakura looked around, confused, until she recalled that she was in the Akatsuki compound now. She looked at her lap and sighed, silently missing her own pink and green room. The loud knocking on her door started up again and Sakura got up to answer it, taking care that she was wearing her coat.

"Who is it?" Sakura called, stopping a few feet away from the wood door. There was a silence before a gruff, low voice answered her, "Eat."

"What? Wait, who are you?" She asked, half startled, half confused.

"Open the door and you'll find out, newb." The voice replied. Sakura looked around and cautiously unlocked the door and pulled it open. Standing in the door way was a pale blue man with dark blue hair and gill-like features under his eyes, immensely taller than she. She recognized this man from when she was given the choice between becoming a member of the organization or death.

"Hello. I am Hoshigaki Kisame." The man greeted with a grin. Sharp teeth rained down from the top of his jaw and jut up from the bottom. They vaguely reminded her of sharks' teeth. Sakura shook her head really quick before replying, "Haruno Sakura. And stop calling me a newb."

Kisame chuckled before saying, "Alright, Pinky,"

Sakura's eyes narrowed as he laughed some more at her frustration. She sighed and crossed her arms, which he mimicked. The pink haired girl raised an eyebrow; the guy seemed friendly enough but...

Kisame finally broke the quiet between them and said, "Dinner is ready, Pinky. Be there, or Zetsu will eat everything."

"Right, Tuna-chan." Sakura replied, surprising the blue man. She poked his chest, adding to the moment. He grinned down at her and nodded his head.

"You have _guts_, Pinky." He commented as he started down the hallway. "Hurry before everything's gone."

"Alright...I'll be there in a bit." Sakura replied as she watched turn a corner and disappear. She was there for a moment more before stepping back into her room and closing the door. She looked down at the polished metal handle and closed her eyes.

'At least this guy was slightly nicer than the last...' Sakura thought as she walked over to her belongings and began to unpack. She placed what clothes she had in a drawer she found, her scrolls underneath her clothes, and her other stuff on the bed. Sakura pulled out a small pink mirror out of her black bag and stared at herself. She looked tired, a bit messy, but after combing her fingers through her hair, Sakura approved of her reflection. With that, she grabbed the map she had left on her pillow and walked out of her room.

The pink haired girl walked into an elaborate dining hall. Littered on the table were untouched trays of food and the light source of the room came from several cinnamon scented candles and some torches. Sakura suddenly felt 8 pairs of eyes on her, rendering her a bit uneasy. She looked at the table before and examined which seats remained empty. There were two empty seats; one was in between Deidara and Kisame, and the other between a man with a Venus flytrap hiding his face and a man with an orange mask on. She knit her brows.

Who was less dangerous to sit inbetween? The man with the fly trap head made her nervous, so she decided to go with the lesser of the two and placed herself between Kisame and Deidara. She sat on the dark wooden chair and glanced around.

"Hn, the brat's here, un." Deidara coldly announced, earning a glare from Sakura.

"Pinky's here." Kisame said with a smile. "Newest member, don't _kill_ her. She's got game."

"Haruno Sakura..." The said girl hissed making Kisame chuckle to himself.

"What she said." The others only glanced at her before turning away. Only Tobi waved at her and squeaked, "Hello, Sakura-Sama. Tobi is my name!"

Sakura smiled a little before looking around. "Um, when do we start eating...?"

"Now! Hurry!" Kisame shouted as everyone split their wooden chopsticks and immediately began digging into the food.

Sakura quickly did the same and filled her plate up.

'It's chaotic here...Reminds me of Ko—' She stopped there and continued to gather food onto her plate before it all disappeared.

After everyone finished piling food onto their plates, Sakura took her cup of water and sipped from it.

"...!!" Sakura swallowed the water before peering into the cup. "...Does anyone else think that their water tastes like...sake?"

Kisame roared with laughter and that was followed by several chuckles.

"Kisame-San always spikes everyone's drinks, Sakura-sama!" Tobi answered. Sakura twitched and glared at the fish man as she boldly elbowed his side.

"Ow." Kisame muttered as he clutched his side. "Ow, Pinky. Violence is not the answer."

Sakura rolled her eyes and muttered, 'hypocrite' before digging in. After everyone finished eating, some of the quieter members left while the..._wilder_ ones stayed behind and talked story. Sakura quietly listed to them as she drank her, now not sake spiked, water.

"It's a shame Konan's not here," Kisame began. "She's such a funny drinker."

Deidara smirked as Kisame looked over to Sakura and asked, "Hey, Pinky, do you want to join?"

"Don't call me that," Sakura said dangerously as she stopped playing with her chopsticks. "And what are you talking about?"

Deidara grinned and ran his fingers through his thick blonde hair. He shrugged and simply said, "Just say yes."

Sakura shook her head as she put her chopsticks onto her plate before saying, "No, tell me."

"A drinking contest, un."

A look of confusion came across her face as Deidara motioned for Kisame to give the girl an explanation.

"Well..." Kisame began. "All you have to do is drink until you pass out, throw up, or get tired."

"Anything else?" She asked, unsure. She could hold her liquor, no doubt, but did she really want to do this?

"The contest is like a 'If I tell you to do something and I win, you have to do it.' Kind of thing." He elaborated as Sakura considered her options. She stole a glance at Deidara's way before a grin appeared on her face.

"Anything?"

Kisame smirked and replied, "_Anything_, with the exception of asking the other to kill them selves or get seriously injured. I can't tell you how many times we've had our members jump off cliffs because of that."

Sakura laughed as she noticed Tobi get up and start for what looked like a storage room. He dug through the mess and pulled out a crate of white bottles. The kunoichi recognized the bottles as sake; the drink that her former mentor loved so much. Sakura sighed as she looked at her lap.

_Konoha._

"So what do you say?" Kisame asked, snapping Sakura back to reality as Tobi brought out a couple bottles. Sakura smirked and nodded.

"Alright. I'm in."


	4. Don't waste the sake

Clang. Ting.

_SMASH. _

"Tobi!!! Don't drop the sake, un!" Deidara growled as he got up from his chair to assist the 'hopeless cause'. The said boy who was currently hauling bottles upon bottles of sake quickly replied, "Ok, Deidara-Sempai!"

Deidara began stacking a couple bottles in a row behind a small table with a pair of shot glasses on it. Sakura followed Kisame, who, seemed a bit out of it. She wondered how much he had drank even before their little game had began.

"Let's begin." Kisame began with a toothy smirk on his face. Sakura, who was standing in another corner of the room waiting, asked, "Wait. Who's doing this?"

Kisame shrugged before shouting, "Whoever plans on participating, raise your hand!"

4 arms rose into the air, allowing Sakura to glance at the people joining in.

Deidara and Tobi.

'Great. Just wonderful.' Sakura mentally sighed, mumbling her dislike in the blonde and the strangeness of the masked man.

"Sakura, you and Tobi are up first." Kisame said.

Sakura unconsciously nodded and walked up to the small square table in the middle of the room.

Tobi was already sitting in front of one side of the table, so Sakura sat down on the other side.

"Sakura-Sama, you begin the dare!" Tobi said happily.

Sakura raised an eyebrow before replying, "Ummmmmm...If I win, you have to take that mask off so I can see your face."

Tobi nodded and said, "If Tobi succeeds, you have to..." He paused looking around for something right. "Kiss me!"

Sakura fidgeted as she looked up at Kisame, who, was just grinning at the pair. An individual cup of sake for each contender was placed in front them.

'I guess that going to raves with Ino and getting really drunk is finally paying off.' The pinkette thought as she plucked the small cup up from the table and downed the contents. As soon as she set the cup down, she noticed something was wrong with her opponent.

"Tobi's throat...Tobi's throat burns..." Tobi croaked. He quickly stood and ran to the bathroom to sooth his burning throat. Sakura raised an eyebrow as Deidara held his hand up and declared her the winner of that round. She smiled to herself at that and Kisame just laughed like a madman. Tobi came out of the bathroom 3 minutes later and sighed.

"Mask off, Tobi-san." Sakura commanded. Tobi nodded and slowly peeled his orange mask off of his face.

Sakura twitched. "Kami, you're...You're...You're adorable!!" She squealed.

Tobi flinched and prepared himself. Sakura hugged Tobi and asked, "Tobi, Tobi, Tobi, why didn't you tell me that you were sooo cute!?"

"Because, the 'Hopeless Wonder' doesn't exactly like what you're doing to him right now, un." Deidara sighed. Sakura looked at Tobi's now bluish face and released him. Tobi struggled to inhale before slapping his mask back on his face and sighing.

"Sorry, Tobi-san..." Sakura apologized. "I didn't mean to strangle you..."

"It is alright." Tobi replied in his usual cheery tone. "Tobi knows that your intentions were accidental when you tried to suffocate me!"

Sakura sighed again before smiling, "Okay."

"Round two: myself VS fish face!" Deidara announced Sakura watched Tobi going back to serving the drinks.

Kisame sat down where Tobi previously was and grinned.

"Blondie, you're going down." He said with a smirk as he motioned for Tobi to come over with the cups. Deidara scoffed, noting that Kisame had already gone through a couple bottles of sake.

"You're cleaning my blade for the next 3 weeks." Kisame said as he drummed his fingers against the table. Deidara shook his head at the 'weak' dare and came up with a better, _humiliating_ dare.

"When I kick your ass, tomorrow night you get the pleasure of running around singing 'Under the Sea' around the base." Deidara smirked, as Kisame frowned. Sake was placed in front of the two, and the contents of the cups were quickly drunk. This progressed for 5 more minutes before Kisame lifted up his cup, and in a woozy daze, dropped it. The man finally slumped backwards and passed out.

Sakura looked at Kisame as Tobi dragged him to a corner for the blue man to rest as Deidara grinned triumphantly. He then looked at Sakura as if he was a wolf and she was a little sheep. And he looked _hungry._ This made the girl uneasy.

"Can I have a 5 minute break, Deidara?" She asked as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"2 minutes, un."

"Alright."

Sakura stood up and walked to the bathroom. There, she quickly detoxified herself before dashing out to meet Deidara at the table.

"2 minutes and 3 seconds, brat. I should disqualify you, but I'm not that mean, un." Deidara said as Sakura sat down.

Sakura glared at him and growled, "Shut up and name your bet."

Deidara smirked and replied, "You have to sleep with me every night unless I'm on a mission."

Someone whistled. Sakura could've sworn her jaw dropped.

Deidara's smirk grew as he said, "Pervert, I meant you have to sleep in my room every night that I'm here, brat."

Sakura blushed before stammering, "Fine. If I win, you have to stop calling me a brat."

"Deal."

Then, the sake was placed in front of them.

.:.:.

"Alright! They're been at this for almost half an hour!" Tobi cheered. "Go Sakura-Sama!"

The two had ditched the traditional sake cups and went onto guzzling down the sake in the bottles.

'_C'mon girl! We can do this! WE CAN BEAT THIS BLOND BASTARD_!' As inner Sakura rose from the ashes and cheered.

Sakura set down her 2nd bottle and picked up another. After discarding the cap, she began to down the contents.

'_Alright, we can win! HURRY UP GODDAMMIT_!' An inner Deidara shrieked.

'Shut the hell up, un...' Deidara thought as he drained a bottle of sake.

'_DON'T GIVE UP!! DON'T LET HIM WIN!!__ SHANAROOO!'_

'_Don't let the pink bitch fuck with your __**pride**__! You are a __**male**__!! SHE IS INFERIOR!'_

.:.:.

"Chug! Chug! Chug!" Cheered Tobi as the two continued to rid Kisame of his precious sake.

'_C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, un!! CHUG DAMMIT CHUG__!_' Inner Deidara squealed.

'Shut the fuck up, I'm chugging...' Deidara groggily thought as he put another bottle to his lips. His mind was starting to swim.

'_We can't lose this bet, we just can't__!'_

'I know!'

'_DO YOU HEAR ME, I SAID__—'_

'SHUT UP!! Kami, I'm you're worse than Sasori-Danna, un...'

'…**CHUG**!!'

Deidara was just about to punch himself when he caught Sakura staring at him. He obviously couldn't say something witty to her, so he just shot her an evil glare. When she moved her gaze, he mentally cackled in triumph.

.:.:.

'_Yes! We can do this_!' Inner Sakura shouted. '_Deidara looks like he's going to pass out any minute now_!'

Indeed, the blond looked quite drunk right now. His eyelids drooped slightly and a familiar blush from the alcohol was painted on his cheeks. And, his ponytail seemed to droop as well.

'Hey, wait...I'm just imagining the ponytail one...I-I think...' Sakura thought as she blinked a few times. Deidara saw that she was staring at him and watched as he glared at her, something usually done to Tobi. Suddenly, Sakura shuddered in fear.

'_Damn, that glare's freaky__!' _Inner Sakura squeaked._ '__I've never seen anything scarier since...Since Gai-Sensei's eyebrows__!'_

Sakura forbade herself from smiling at her inner's comment, else the sake she was supposed to drink be wasted.

'I can do this...I've faced tougher challenges then this!' The rosette haired woman told herself. 'Deidara's going down!

.:.:.

"Oh Kami! They've been at it for an hour! It's a new record!" Tobi squeaked in delight. Tobi looked around for a certain fishy man. When he spotted Kisame rousing, he raced towards him.

"Kisame-sempai! Kisame-sempai! Sakura-sama and Deidara-sempai just beat your record with Itachi-San!"

Kisame's eyes flew open and he bellowed a fairly loud, "They did WHAT?! They should be _dead_ already!"

Tobi held up his orange stopwatch that held a nice '61:02' in it.

Kisame's jaw dropped at the time. Sakura and Deidara saw this and quickly removed the sake bottles from their lips and placed a hand on their mouths. The two slowly swallowed the sake in their mouths before laughing at Kisame's shocked expression. A short while after their laughter session, Deidara and Sakura quickly began drinking the sake again.

.:.:.

Sakura's vision was getting so blurry that she could hardly make out the form in front of her. Deidara smirked as he noticed Sakura's dropping eyelids and slowed reflexes and drank on. Sakura off the feeling of tiredness, Sakura immediately guzzled down another bottle of Sake and pried open another and lifted it to her lips.

'Just a little more...' Deidara grinned. '10...'

Sakura's vision darkened as she slumped backwards a little.

'9...'

The bottle in her hands trembled.

'7...6...5...'

Sake missed her mouth and poured down her chin and neck.

'4...'

The bottle fell.

'3...'

A crash and a smirk. Sake poured down the table and onto the floor. Sakura closed her eyes. He smiled as he rose from his seat, a bit wobbly, however.

'2.'

She began to fall backwards.

'1.'

And she was quickly caught before she hit her head.

"I win."

Deidara knelt next to her with her head resting in his arms. He played with a lock of her pink hair and grinned. "I'll carry her to my room now."

Kisame whistled and said, "Nice catch."

"Isn't it?" The blond boy smirked.

"But you two are bastards...Beating my record like it was nuthin'...Cruel, cruel."

"Hehe...I try, un."

Deidara picked Sakura up bridal style and quickly walked out of the dining room. He then walked through the many hallways upon hallways to eventually stop at his room. Quietly, he opened his door and set the intoxicated kunoichi on his bed.

The blond ninja smirked as he went into his bathroom to change his clothes.

.:.:.

It wasn't until the next morning when Sakura woke up with a pretty ferocious hangover.

"Ugh..." She moaned as she clutched her head. She sighed and sat up. When she did, she noticed a hand on her upper thigh. Sakura twitched and slowly turned her head to see what was at the other end of that hand. And when she did, she gawked at the sight. Deidara had his hair down so that his blonde hair was splayed all over the pillows. He was shirtless as well and he, from what Sakura could see, was only wearing a pair of blue boxers.

A blush fell over her porcelain cheeks as she studied his body a bit further.

'_Oh crap...__' _Inner Sakura drooled._ '__He's got an eight pack...I didn't even know eight packs were possible!__'_

'Neither did I...' Sakura replied.

She extended her arm to brush away a few of his sunny locks of hair when a voice disturbed her:

"You know, it's not polite to molest people in their sleep, un."

Sakura shrieked and scooted away. Deidara sat up and rubbed his eyes before asking, "May I ask what your intentions were, brat?"

_Damn._ She thought_ I lost._

"I uh..." She cursed herself as she tried to find the right words to spit out. "Nothing."

Deidara rolled his eyes as he lied back down and said, "Whatever. Now, go back to sleep, it's three in the morning."

"Right..." Sakura stuttered again as she settled back down beneath the warm satin blankets.

"Hey, Deidara?"

"What, un."

"You're a bastard."

"Tch, I know."

"...Fine then, you're a pretty bastard." She weakly admitted as she noticed a smirk creep onto Deidara's face. He shrugged slightly as he pressed his face into his pillow.

"I know."

**BAM.**

"OW! You bitch, what the hell!?"

"Stupid vain bastard!"

A voice outside shouted, "**GO TO SLEEP!**"

The two mumbled something about killing the other before hiding under the covers and slowly falling asleep.

.:.:.

The sun was rising as the two walked to the kitchen in silence. When they got there, Sakura grabbed an empty mug and began making a hangover cure for herself and Deidara. The blond ex-Iwa nin was sitting in a chair watching the kunoichi run around the kitchen.

"Heh, by the way, you're surprisingly light." Deidara mused as Sakura finished brewing her hangover remedy. Sakura rolled her eyes and flicked some water into his face.

"And what's that's supposed to mean?"

"You're lighter than you look, un."

Sakura poured a bit of hot water onto his head. Deidara flinched before he grabbed her arm and said, "Stupid bitch."

"Bastard." She snapped back as she tugged her arm away from him.

"Again with the insults?" A voice said. A man with dark hair and deep bags under his eyes walked into the kitchen; Sakura recognized him as Sasuke's older brother Itachi. She kept quiet, not knowing whether to believe the rumors she heard about him in Konoha or not.

"Now I don't know how you two are going to execute a mission properly with your constant bickering, but that isn't my problem." The Sharingan-user said as he walked past them to the coffee machine where he filled up his coffee mug.

"Shut it Itachi, un. The little brat has a really short fuse." Deidara snarled. Sakura slapped the back of his head in annoyance as he shot her a death glare.

"Ow! See!?"

The quiet man shook his dark mane of hair and walked out of the kitchen with his mug of coffee. Sakura and Deidara glared at each other before the pot Sakura was brewing started whistling. She immediately rushed over to the pot and started fanning the steam away. When that was done, she poured some of the contents from the pot into their mugs and handed him one. Deidara, being the impatient person he was, started downing the obviously steaming liquid inside the mug, thus, burning his tongue. Sakura snickered as she blew at the contents in the cup before quickly sipping some down. Deidara on the other hand was fanning his tongue.

"Careful, Deidara. It's hot." Sakura smirked.

"Bish." He growled with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

"Only when you're around, Dei-Chan."

Deidara flinched. "What did you just call me!?"

Sakura laughed. "Nothing, _Dei-Chan_."

"Brat."

Sakura smiled as she put her mug down. "Try blowing on it this time, _Dei-Chan_."

Deidara sighed in defeat as he quickly blew at the liquid in the mug. He was just about to sip it before he asked, "You aren't going to poison me, are you?"

Sakura sighed before she took his mug and sipped a little. Deidara watched her carefully as she swallowed. The pink haired woman smiled and handed it back to him. Feeling a little more confident, he took the cup back and sipped a little. He half expected it to taste horrible. But as he sipped some, he was surprised. It was _much_ worse than the word 'horrible' could describe. Deidara grimaced as he swallowed the liquid.

He then managed to choke out the words, "You **ARE** trying to poison me, un!"

"Yup." Sakura smirked as she sipped from her cup.

"You little brat!"

Sakura laughed at his response said, "I'm kidding. You'll get used to it."

"Not if I never drink any of that shit again..." Deidara moaned as he set the mug back down onto the counter. Sakura ran her fingers through her hair, pulling out any tangles she had.

"_Under the sea! Under the sea! Darling it's better! Down where it's wetter! Take it from me__!"_

The two Shinobi looked up from their laps and looked at the empty doorway leading out of the kitchen. Sakura looked at Deidara in confusion.

"What the _hell_ was that?" Deidara asked the girl, who replied with a shrug.

"_Up on the shore they work all day! Out in the sun they slave away! While we devotin'! Full time to floatin'! Under the sea!!"_

A wave of realization washed over Sakura as she shot up from her chair and bolted out of the kitchen, leaving behind a very confused looking Deidara. His expression soured a moment later as he realized she just left him.

"Wait up, brat!" Deidara called after her as he repeated her process before heading out of his room and twitched when he saw the sight before him. Kisame stood before them, twirling. He was dressed in a blue ballet suit with ruffles, pink tights and a bright blue bow in his hair. And more ruffles while holding up a sign saying, 'I like to sing and dance!' Sakura crumbled to the floor laughing. Deidara was slightly disturbed before Kisame jumped and spun in the air.

"Oh my god...He's wearing a-he's wearing a ballerina suit!!" Sakura choked on her laughter. Kisame glared at the two giggling forms on the ground before jumping over them and prancing away singing:

"_Under the sea! Under the sea! When the sardine! Begin the beguine! It's music to me!"_

The two suffocating Shinobi eventually calmed down enough to actually breathe.

"Oh god..." Sakura sighed as she wiped away her tears from laughing. "But the ballerina costume was never in the dare..."

Deidara smirked and said, "Well, if you know how to weave your lies correctly, and convince that shark-man that you added that during the contest, I guess _that's_" He pointed to where Kisame was last seen. "-what the finished product is, un."

Sakura laughed quietly before saying, "Amazing."


	5. Monster

I don't own Naruto.

-

-

-

A boy of around 18 sat on a swing under a tall tree near the Ninja Academy. He held a downcast expression with his frown and half lidded electric blue eyes. 3 marks on each side of his face ripped across his cheeks.

"Sakura-Chan..." The boy muttered. He furrowed his eyebrows and glared at the ground.

"N-Naruto-kun, are you okay?" A timid voice asked. Hinata stepped out from behind the tree with a worried face. "Naruto-ku—"

"Don't worry about it, Hinata-Chan." Naruto replied as he looked to his girlfriend.

"Ok..." Hinata replied with a small smile. She walked next to him and said, "Naruto-kun, are you going to the party at Sasuke-san's home tonight?"

Naruto nodded slightly. "What number is the new one?"

Hinata looked puzzled. "New what, Naruto-kun?"

"Sasuke-teme's new girlfriend."

"O-Oh…I can't really say, but I think she's number 9..."

Naruto looked at the ground again and sighed. "Do you know what she's like?"

Hinata glanced around before saying, "She's our age...And she's got long black hair, a p-pair of silvery red eyes, very pale, and...She's very distant...I think her n-name is Izanami."

Naruto nodded as Hinata sighed a little. Naruto had been writing facts down in a journal about Sasuke's new girlfriends since Sakura had left. When...If Sakura had ever come back, Naruto would give Sakura the journal and that would give her a reason to beat the shit out of Sasuke 10 times harder than she normally would.

"Hinata-Chan, I'll meet up with you here in the next 20 minutes, OK?" Naruto asked as he stood. Hinata smiled brightly a nodded. "Okay, Naruto-kun."

Naruto kissed Hinata on the forehead and they exchanged I-love-you's. With that, the two disappeared in smoke.

.:.:.

"Hina-Chan, you look you cute!" Naruto smiled as he looked up and down at his girlfriend.

The said girl blushed as she glanced down at her pearly white dress and muttered a small 'Thank you.' Naruto smiled again and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Let's go, Hinata-Chan." The blonde boy said. The indigo haired woman smiled and followed Naruto as they walked to the Uchiha Estate.

"Oi! Sasuke-Teme!" Naruto called. The said onyx eyed boy looked over to his blonde teammate. Sasuke's tux was obviously far more expensive than Naruto's.

"What." The Uchiha replied, cold as ever. Naruto ran over and asked with a small glare, "So where's your new sex-toy?"

Sasuke elbowed him in the stomach. "She's not my sex-toy, dobe."

A pair of blue eyes were rolled as he replied, "Riiight, she's your sex-_slave._" Sasuke gave him a 'knock-it-off' glare.

"Anyways," Naruto started again. "Where is she?"

"Hm, where is who?" A soft voice called.

Naruto and Sasuke turned to see a woman as Hinata had described. She was tall, pale, and had some very nicely placed features. Her dress was a deep shade of red and her silver eyes were a bit hidden behind her thick, dark lashes.

"Hn, we were just speaking about you, Izanami." Sasuke replied. Izanami nodded slightly as she turned to Naruto with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"And this is...?" She began.

"Don't mind the dobe, Iza." Sasuke replied. "I'll go get us something to drink."

Izanami muttered a quiet, 'Alright' before Sasuke disappeared into the crowd in his mansion. Naruto glared at Sasuke's back then turned back to Izanami.

"Hiya." He said with a cheery smile as he held out his hand for her to shake.

"Hi." Was her reply as she took his hand and shook it as she gave him a polite smile. She then released his hand and said, "You're Sasuke's teammate, right?"

"Unfortunately." Naruto joked earning an amused smile from the other girl.

"Hey, be careful around Sasuke-Teme...He's dumping girls left and right..." Naruto warned as she nodded slightly.

"I figured that out a while ago." She replied with a shrug. "I honestly don't mind, but... I take it that you know about Sasuke's 8 other girlfriends then?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to raise an eyebrow. "How'd you kn-"

Izanami cut him off, "Just to let you know, I'm not a crazy fan girl. I just like keeping records on people who spike my interest."

Naruto closed his mouth. "Wow. So then you must know about—"

"Kuno Kione, Ookami Suteki, Nara Kagami, Watanabe Ami, Joshin Mitsukai, Yamanaka Ino, Reigen, and Mikonoyomi Sin-Nari. Yes." Izanami replied with a nod.

"Izanami." Sasuke's deep voice called. "Come over here."

Izanami looked over to Naruto. "Gotta run. It was nice meeting you."

With that, Izanami disappeared into the crowd, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto behind.

-

-

-

Sakura squealed slightly as a hand clamped over her mouth, stopping her walk throughout the headquarters.

"Shut up, un." A voice growled dangerously. Sakura recognized the voice and looked up. Deidara loomed over her with an annoyed expression as he slowly slid his hand away from her face.

"Brat." He growled again. Sakura elbowed him in the stomach. Deidara released her and cringed.

"Bastard, why'd you sneak up on me like that?" Sakura demanded.

"I wasn't sneaking up on you, stupid." Deidara snarled. "I was looking for you because I think that 'cure' of yours made me sick, un."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and took a good look at Deidara. He looked a little paler than usual. "How so?"

Deidara coughed a little before saying, "My stomach hurts like hell, un."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "Go lie down then."

"I tried that."

"Then...Then just do it again."

"Fine, un." Deidara turned around and walked around the halls of the base to go to his room. Sakura went in the other direction to the kitchen.

'Wonder what happened...' Sakura thought as she entered the kitchen.

'Oh well.' She sighed as she looked for a towel or two. She found a couple and dipped them in water. Sakura then tossed them into a cooking pot with some water and began fuel the flames. When the towels were warm enough, Sakura pulled them out of the pot with a silver stick thing and wrung them out a little before folding them. When this was done, Sakura quickly left the kitchen and headed to Deidara's room.

"Deidara..." Sakura said quietly as she opened the door.

"Uhn?" A tired voice answered. Sakura walked into the room to see Deidara lying on his bed wearing a baby blue cotton shirt and a matching pair of pants. His scope was lying on the table next to his bed, so Sakura could see his other eye.

"Ah, you listened to me." Sakura smirked as she walked over to the bed.

"Shuddup." Deidara groaned as he rolled over so that he wasn't facing her. "God damn it, now my head's starting to pound like hell too..."

Sakura sat down on the edge of the bed. "Roll over."

"What?" He asked, not catching what she asked. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Roll over so that your back is on the bed."

With a groan of pain, the blondee man did as he was told and rolled over.

Sakura crawled over him and started lifting up his shirt.

"W-What are you doing?" Deidara winced as he felt his cheeks beginning to heat up.

"Shut up and stay still." Sakura said as she tossed away Deidara's shirt and placed one of the warm towels on Deidara's stomach.

"This is supposed to help bad cramps, but I guess this'll help you too." She replied as he looked away and sighed. Sakura got off of him and put another towel on his head. The pink haired woman then sat down on the edge of the bed again and stared at the ground as Deidara began to relax and close his eyes.

After a few minutes, Sakura looked up and asked, "Feeling better?"

His soft breathing was heard from behind her. Sakura turned around to see that Deidara's breathing was slowed. A small mumble escaped his lips every once and a while.

Sakura shook her head, dismissing any thoughts of using this as blackmail.

'Okay, yeah, I'm mean. But I'm not _that_ mean.' Sakura said to herself as she went to go find some water for herself.

.:.:.

The smell of cherries filled his nostrils as Deidara began to stir. With a lot of effort, he slowly opened his eyes.

"Uh..." Deidara moaned as he attempted to sit up, but something held him down. Deidara squinted a little to see if he could see what the hell that pink blob hovering above him was.

"You're not in the condition to go running around." A tired voice said. Deidara recognized that voice anywhere.

"Brat?" He rubbed his eyes a little and looked at the Sakura who was folding a towel.

"Hm?"

"How long was I out, un?"

"4 hours." Sakura replied while Deidara looked around. There were a couple damp looking towels here and there on his clean, clay tables. Deidara guessed that Sakura was using the water from the bathroom to heat the towels.

'She took a shower...' He thought as he noticed her still wet, dark pink hair.

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked, knocking Deidara out of his oh so observant world.

"Better, un." Deidara said. Sakura yawned deeply and replied, "That's good."

"Take a nap." He said as Sakura looked up from her piles of towels.

"Repeat that?" She asked as Deidara sighed. "You heard me. Go take a nap. You look tired, un."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows.

"No, I can't. I've got to tend to you since you're sick and all..."

"I appreciate it, I know you can't stop thinking about me since I'm so awesome, sexy, and all that crap." Deidara grinned. Sakura raised a towel and looked like she was going to throw it at him. The grin on Deidara's face faded away at the scary sight.

"N-Never mind...Just, just take a break, un." He said as ran his fingers through his hair. Sakura considered her options; Deidara obviously had a point about her being drained. While he was asleep, Sakura preformed a test on him to see if he was ill or not. Turned out that he had a simple stomachache and a headache. She used a little chakra to fix his headache, but she had to run back and fourth from the bathroom to his room to keep the towels heated. Finally, Sakura gave in.

"Fine." She said as she got up and started for the door. "I'll see you later, then."

"Wait, un." The rosette haired girl turned around with a quizzical look on her face.

"You have to sleep here, remember, un?" Deidara smirked as he patted the bed next to him. She raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

_Oh...That's right._

Sakura glared as Deidara moved a little away from the center of the bed. With a heavy sigh, she walked to the bed and lied down on the edge. There had to be at least a 2-foot gap between them, otherwise she'd feel _very_ uncomfortable. Sakura closed her eyes after a short while. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt the bed shift a little and someone breathing on her neck.

"Thanks, Sakura, un." He said, intending on teasing her because he _knew_ that things like that made her uncomfortable. But, she didn't reply; she had already fallen asleep. When he noticed that, he sighed and closed his eyes as well.


	6. Mission

It had been two months since Sakura was first brought to the Akatsuki compound. After her first week was done, she started sparring with Kisame and Deidara; the only two people she trusted not to _kill_ her during their matches. Since Sakura didn't exactly have a signature weapon to use against the guys, they were _always_ fist fights, which, she _always_ won, much to her humor. Deidara was always bitter about the fact and always got mad when she beat the crap out of him, however, Kisame thought it was amusing.

Now came the morning when Pein summoned them to the sealing room where his hologram sat on the edge of one of the tips of the giant statue's fingers.

"Sakura-san. Itachi-san. Deidara-san." Leader said as the three appeared onto their respective finger pad on the statue.

"Yes." They all said automatically.

"Zetsu-san has located the 8-tails." Sir Leader began. "You three are to go out and capture the said demon. You are to leave in a week."

"Sir..." Sakura began in a timid voice. "Why are you sending Itachi-san with us?"

Leader was silent for a moment. This made Sakura shrink back a little, as if she did something wrong. She learned to never fuck with the leader, otherwise you were as good as _dead._

"Why?" Leader asked. "Well, Sakura-san...Out of the three of you, he is the most experienced in capturing the more powerful demons. After all, he has gotten the Gobi and Rokubi by himself."

Itachi remained silent as Sakura glanced toward him upon learning the fact. She knew Itachi was strong, just not _that_ powerful.

"You are all dismissed." Leader ended as his hologram began to fade. The Akatsuki turned around and headed into a few dimly lit corridors. Itachi had followed Sakura though.

"Sakura-san." Itachi said in an emotionless voice. Sakura turned around and nearly bumped into Itachi since he was trailing so close behind her. Sakura looked up to Itachi and replied, desperately trying not to stutter in fear, "Itachi-san. What is it?"

Itachi stared at her for a moment before turning around. "Follow me."

Sakura raised an eyebrow before obediently following the older man. They walked quietly; the only sounds were their footsteps.

"I want to know more about you." He suddenly said as he stopped in front of a door.

"What do you mean?"

"Your strengths, weaknesses." Itachi explained as he turned around a little to face her. "You've been sparring with Kisame and Deidara, right?"

She nodded lamely as he studied her for a moment.

"We need to fit you with some better gloves." He said as he turned around again. Sakura was confused as she looked down at her hands, but he was right. Her black leather gloves were worn and torn in some places. Sakura nodded a little as Itachi opened the door to greet a bright light Sakura hadn't seen in a while, sunlight. Beyond the light was a field of lush green grass and a couple trees here and there.

"You are going to fight Deidara and I, no jutsu, no weapons, and I will not use my Sharingan." Itachi said as he closed his eyes, hiding the blood red orbs. He reopened his eyes to reveal a dark pool of ink the place of his previous Sharingan eyes. Sakura could help but stare into Itachi's eyes. Sakura put her finger on it, but Itachi reminded her of something...

'Now I remember...' Sakura thought as she watched Itachi walk into the grassy field. 'He reminds me of Sas—'

"Oi, Itachi-san, un. I'm not late!"

Sakura turned around to see a coatless Deidara walking into the field.

"Hn." Itachi's voice said.

Sakura suddenly remembered who she was going to be fighting. A man who killed his clan without a second thought when he was 13 and a man who loved to hear the sounds of bombs exploding, he being the cause of the explosions. Sakura realized that she was alone. She had to fighting them all by herself.

"I-Itachi-san!" Sakura whipped around. "Wait, you said I was fighting _both_ of you, right?"

Itachi nodded.

"That's not really fair..." Sakura despaired.

"Life isn't always fair, Sakura-san." Itachi replied as he rid himself of his cloak.

"Besides," Deidara cut in as he walked towards the center of the field. "We're only going to use our physical attacks, and we won't _try_ to kill you."

Sakura rolled her eyes and twitched as she felt someone breathing on her neck.

"Keep your guard up and pay attention." Sakura jolted forward and twisted around to see Itachi.

"Yeah, little mistakes like that are costly, you know, un?" Straight ahead. Back. Left. Right. Up. Down. Where is he?

"Peek-a-boo."

A hand nearly grabbed her ankle. Sakura disappeared in the blink of an eye. Deidara smirked as he slid off the tree branch he was sitting on. Where'd she go now? The ex-Iwa nin didn't get the chance to look around as he flew forward and collided with the grass.

What the-?

"Ah!" Sakura's voice shrieked. There was a loud crack and as Deidara got up and turned around, all he could see was smoke and leaves flying everywhere. Something charged out of the smoke as Itachi calmly walked into the cloud of dust.

"Hyah!"

Deidara jumped up as he felt the ground beneath his feet crumble. He looked back to the clearing cloud of dust to see Sakura and Itachi going at it. Itachi dodged as Sakura sent a kick flying for his head. As Sakura retracted her first kick, she sent a fake punch for Itachi's stomach, then another kick for his head. The kick brushed Itachi's ponytail as he grabbed her leg. Sakura's eyes widened.

'Shit.'

Itachi carelessly threw Sakura into a tree. Sakura had quickly acted and positioned herself so that she could kick off from the tree as soon as she hit it. And she did just that.

"Brat, don't forget about me, un." Sakura growled as she skidded to a stop.

"Where—"

There was a rush of air coming from behind her. Sakura instinctively ducked as her hand flew out to grab her attacker's fist or leg. She then flipped her opponent over so that they would hit the ground, face first. Sakura immediately straddled her attacker and held his hands behind his back. Sakura was expecting Deidara to be underneath her.

"What the hell?" Sakura asked as she looked down at the man beneath her.

"Itachi-san? How the hell did I get _you_?"

Itachi didn't reply as he spit out some dirt.

"God I feel like a _broken record_, pay _attention!_."

Sakura ducked to avoid Deidara's kick. She ended up in an extremely awkward position with Itachi. Her left cheek was on his back and her hands that secured his were in between her breasts. Sakura's free hand was down by his face. She probably could have hit him really hard when she ducked. Sakura, who, did not take the time to notice their position grabbed Deidara's leg and flung him down as well.

"Arg!" Deidara growled as he fell. Sakura quickly pushed the unmoving Itachi next to Deidara and held them both down. There was a slight silence. The 3 shinobi's labored breathing filled the air until one of them broke the silence.

"Do I pass?" Sakura panted.

"Yes." Itachi replied.

"Whew." Sakura collapsed ontop of Itachi's back and Deidara's stomach.

"Hey brat..." Deidara scowled as he looked up at her.

"Hm?" Sakura replied as she looked at Deidara.

"Would you mind getting off of us, un?"

"Sorry." She propped herself on her hands and slowly rose onto until she was sitting next to Itachi. Deidara leisurely sat up and sighed a few seconds afterwards.

"Sakura-san."

Sakura looked up to see Itachi staring down at her. She didn't even notice him move.

_He's so fast_. She thought as she glanced around. Deidara was brushing himself off and spit out some dirt from his mouth.

"Umm...?"

"Heal Deidara-san and I," He said. "Please."

Sakura smiled gently as she looked at Deidara.

"I'll go next." Itachi said as Deidara rolled his visible eye and lied down for the medic

-

-

-

"We have arrived, Tsunade-Sama."

8 ANBU stood, crouched, leaned, and sat in front of the said Hokage.

"As you all know, Haruno Sakura has recently left Konoha without warning." Tsunade began in a firm tone. "Can anyone take a guess on why I summoned you 8?"

One of the shorter ANBU raised their hand and said, "We are to retrieve the said Haruno Sakura, am I correct, ma'am?"

Tsunade smirked. "You are very correct. Now, word has gone around recently, and I was informed that Sakura has joined an organization you all are too familiar with, and since Akimichi-san is away on a mission of his own, his replacement should be on her way."

"Baa-chan!" One of the ANBU shouted. "Baa-chan, we don't need to wait for a replacement! I want to go rescue Sakura-chan, _now_!"

"Hokage-Sama." A familiar voice said as the door to the room opened. Standing in the doorway was a tall woman whose face was concealed by her porcelain ANBU mask. Her long black hair was tied up in a high ponytail.

"Ah, Mikonoyomi-san. Right on time." Tsunade smiled. The ANBU who had shouted previously glared at the newcomer and growled, "We don't need another nin, Baa-chan."

Tsunade stared at the one who had spoken and said, "Naruto, she is essential to your team's survival."

Naruto sighed, removed his mask, and asked, "How so?"

Tsunade motioned for the newcomer to explain herself. The ninja nodded and took a deep breath to start her story.

"I originally came from the Rain village. When I was 13, I was kidnapped and sold to the Akatsuki. I was expecting to be killed or raped, but I guess the last thing I'd imagine to happen occurred. At the base, they enhanced my knowledge in healing and medicine with captured medical nin. I was still young and _fresh_, as they put it. That was their reason for not disposing of me. I fled the base when I was 18, and here I am a year later."

Naruto growled and looked back at Tsunade. "Who is she anyway?"

Tsunade smirked. "Do the honors, Mikonoyomi-san."

The girl placed her delicate fingers on the surface of her ceramic panther mask and slowly, to Naruto it felt like an eternity, removed her mask.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "You're...!!"

-

-

-

The sun still hung high in the sky and birds chirped nosily in the trees. The 2 of the 3 recovering shinobi slept peacefully under one of the trees in the field. Itachi was propped up against the tree in a light sleep while Sakura lay down on her pillow; Deidara's lap. Deidara himself was also propped up against the tree like Itachi. While Itachi and Deidara were sleeping, Sakura stared up into the clouds.

'Shika...I wonder how you guys are doing right now...' Sakura thought sadly as she began to piece together images from the clouds, all of which reminded her of Konoha.

"Sakura-san."

Sakura nearly jumped as she heard Itachi speak. She quickly sat up to meet the Sharingan-user's gaze.

"How is my brother?" The dark haired man asked, his tone devoid of any emotion whatsoever. Sakura sighed as she realized who he was asking about.

Sasuke.

"Fine, I guess." She replied as he looked at her for a moment before turning away. There was a long silence afterwards.

"Sakura-sa—"

"Just call me Sakura or Sakura-chan. I'm not a stranger to you, am I?" Sakura interrupted. Itachi was silent for a moment.

"Sakura," He continued, earning a smile from her. "The mission is dangerous. More than you could ever imagine."

Sakura nodded, taking into consideration that this was a very skilled, ruthless man sitting next to her. If something was considered _dangerous_ to him, it must be another name for _suicide _for someone like her.

"You are to _run_ if the situation turns bad." Itachi said as he looked up at the sky. She furrowed her brow.

"Don't be so pessimistic." Sakura said as Itachi looked back at her. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"There isn't a reason for me to look forward to a brighter future anyway." Itachi replied, and Sakura noticed how much more talkative he was than his brother. However, she wondered why this man looked so sad all of the time.

"Why's that?" She asked softly as he looked away.

"You don't need to know." He replied as she nodded, not wanting to push him any further than he wanted to go.

-

-

-

Naruto gaped at the girl before him. He then turned to Sasuke. Although Naruto couldn't see his teammates face because of the mask, he knew Sasuke was smirking ever so slightly.

"You're...You're Izanami, Sasuke's girlfriend!" Naruto said. "...Right?"

Izanami remained silent.

"You can all get acquainted later. Meet me at the gates in 3 half and hours." Tsunade said. "You are all now dismissed."

-

-

-

Oh, if you're wondering who's on the Rescue Sakura team, I'll list them for you by team and why they're going:

**Sasuke**: _Sharingan_

**Naruto**: _Kyuubi's power (He nearly got held back because the Akatsuki want him dead)_

**Kiba**: _Dog like senses will detect the enemy from far away_

**Neji**: _His Byakugan_

**Shikamaru**: _Hello? He's the lazy [sexy] ass genius!_

**Ino**: _Has some experience in the medical field_

**Hinata**: _Byakugan (She also has some medical experience as well)_

**Tenten**: _Accuracy in throwing weapons and can supply the team with endless amounts of weapons_

**Izanami:** _Lots of experience in the medical field, kinda has an idea of where the Akatsuki base is, and her kekkie genkai will be revealed in the later chapters._


	7. Plan

Sakura sighed as she carelessly swirled her finger in her cup of water as she listened to Deidara and Itachi fight over attack plans.

"He's a fire demon _thing_, we just need to blow his ass up to the heavens and wait for him to come back down." Deidara stated.

Itachi shook his head. "We are to bring the demon back _alive_. Is that clear, Deidara?"

Deidara rolled his visible eye. "Okay, so all we have to do it knock it out or something, un."

"Good idea." Itachi said sarcastically as he clapped.

"Why you little-"

"SILENCE!" Sakura hissed. "You two are ridiculous! Acting like 3-year-olds...Kami, and you call yourselves S-Class _criminals_, sheesh."

The two men glowered at Sakura.

"Were we talking to you, un?" Deidara growled. Sakura glared and stood up.

"I'm tired of you two, I'm leaving."

Deidara snorted and replied, "Well, good—"

BAM!

"-riddance, un." Deidara sighed as he glared daggers at the now closed door. To his annoyance, Itachi began to clap once again.

"I'd give you nine and a half points for that move, Romeo."

"Shut up, un."

-

-

-

He stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. A pair of tired blue eyes glanced around the room before he sighed and walked into his bedroom.

"Sakura-chan..." He muttered. The man shook his blond head, his very slowly styling itself back into its spikes.

"We're gonna save you, believe it." He said with confidence, clutching the jewel his necklace.

The man looked up and smiled. He looked at his clock and twitched.

"Oh no!" He shouted in panic as he immediately began to put his ANBU outfit on. "I'm gonna be late!! And they're gonna leave with out meeee!"

This is Naruto Uzumaki.

Konoha's number one most unpredictable hyperactive knucklehead ninja.

.:.:.

"BAA-chan!" Naruto screamed as he tore the streets of Konoha apart to get to the gates. His mask and headband were lopsided, and he was trying to pull his pants up. Naruto also had a large duffle bag slung across his back.

"BAA-CHAN! Don't let them _leave _me! I _need _to save Sakura-chan!" He shrieked again as he approached the gates with blinding speed. "BAA-CHA—"

A shoe was thrown at his head.

"OW!"

"Shut up, Uzumaki!"

Naruto fell back from the surprise attack.

"Wha?" He slurred as he looked up. Ino stood over him with her arms crossed.

"You're an idiot, Uzumaki." She glared as she picked her shoe up. Naruto slowly stood up and looked around. Tsunade and the rest of his team stood beside the gates with annoyed expressions on their faces, with the exception of Hinata. She looked so worried about him.

"S'okay Hinata-chan!" Naruto smiled. "I'm alright."

A sigh of relief escaped the Hyuuga heiresses' lips as she looked at him with a smile.

"Continue, Izanami-san." The Godaime said. Naruto looked at Izanami who was staring at Naruto with the 'Oh god, we're all going to die because of him' expression.

"Anyway..." She began. Naruto noticed that her eyes were not their usual silver, but a rich shade of blue. Izanami was also missing the pupils in her eyes.

"Sakura...A blond and a dark haired man...Are heading North...directly towards...Iwa...In 6 days..." A bewildered expression fell over Naruto's face as she said this. Slowly, her eyes faded back into their original colors.

"Er..." An innocently bewildered Naruto began. "How'dya know that??"

Tsunade smiled and said, "It's her kekkie genkai. Like the Hyuuga and Uchiha clan, her clan, the Mikonoyomi of Ame no Kuni, also possesses a Doujutsu called the Jikan. In other words, it allows her clan to see into the past, the present, and the future: they're Seers."

Naruto took a few moments for the information to sink in before he exclaimed, "Wow! That's so cool!"

Izanami smiled slightly before muttering a small 'Thanks' before turning back to Tsunade.

"Tsunade-Sama..." Ten-Ten suddenly spoke. "Are we going to be able to intercept them in time?"

"Yes." Tsunade replied. "But you all must hurry, it will take at least 5 days to get from here to Iwa, so that will give you, yes you, Shikamaru and Neji,"

"Troublesome."

"Hn."

"-enough time to plan a strategy to attack and rescue Sakura."

All of the nine ANBU nodded and muttered "Yes."

Tsunade put her hands on her hips and smiled. "Now off you 9 go."

Another mechanical wave of nods washed over the group of ANBU as they strapped their masks back on. Afterwards, they all began to walk out of Konoha. After the nine passed a couple of meters, Shikamaru glanced at each of them before they all disappeared in a blur. The golden haired Hokage smiled and leaned against the left gate of Konoha.

"Please bring our Sakura-chan back in one piece guys." She whispered to herself before she smiled calmly and walked back to the Hokage Tower.

-

-

-

Sakura was once again roaming the hallways of the Akatsuki base.

"Books?" Sakura asked herself as she opened a door. "Damn, another broom closet."

With a sigh, Sakura closed the door and began to walk around again until she took a sharp turn and bumped into something.

"Ow!" Sakura hissed as she fell back. When she looked up, Sakura nearly jumped. "Who-?"

Green met gold. In addition, what seemed to be foliage.

"I am Zetsu." Sakura scrambled backwards. The man, plant, thing, before the pink haired kunoichi had a black half and a white half split down the middle of his body. He also had golden eyes, green hair, and to top it all off, a Venus flytrap protruding from the base of his shoulders.

"You must be our new member, Sakura, was it?" The white half of Zetsu asked. Sakura nodded vigorously.

"Yeah," Sakura mumbled and looked up at him. The darker half of Zetsu inwardly smirked as he leaned forward and held out his hand.

"Here." As soon as Sakura took Zetsu's hand, he pulled her up to her feet.

"What are you doing, wandering around the base alone, Sakura-san?" Zetsu's white half asked.

"...I was just looking for a book to read. Any kind of book, I don't care. Dei-chan and Itachi-kun are impossible." She explained.

Zetsu raised one of his eyebrows. "Dei-chan? As in Deidara-san."

Sakura nodded with a small smile. Zetsu's darker half laughed as the other side said, "Well, I can show you the way to our library, if you want."

Sakura's eyes lit up. "Oh really? That'd be so great!" The plant-man nodded as he turned around and led her through the maze that was called 'The Akatsuki Headquarters.'

-

-

-

As the sun began to set, Naruto glanced around the area as the two Byakugan users looked for a decent place to set up camp.

"A-Ano, Neji-Neesan, have you found a g-good clearing yet?" Hinata asked softly.

Neji was silent for a few moments before he announced, "Yes. Over there." Neji jerked his head towards a clearing. "It's small, but it will fit us all."

Shikamaru nodded as he led his team towards the clearing.

.:.:.

"Who's up first tonight, Shikamaru?" Kiba asked as he yawned deeply.

Two large, black tents were set up, one for the girls, and one for the boys, both facing each other diagonally. A fire crackled in the center of the camp, sparks flying off the burning wood leaving the ground to char wherever a spark hit. Plumes of smoke rose up into the air as the inferno blazed on.

Shikamaru, who was sitting on a log in front of the fire, sighed. "We'll go by pairs this time, so one person can cover each side of the camp. Who wants to go first?"

The crowd of nin were silent for a moment before two people stepped up, Naruto and Izanami.

The lazy genius nodded and said, "There we go. Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Sasuke, go look for dinner. Girls, get some more firewood. I will guard the camp while you guys are gone."

A few 'Yes's' were muttered as each group set off to find what they were told to look for.

Shikamaru smirked as he lied down and gazed up at the twinkling stars above him.


	8. Worry

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto. Deidara wouldn't have died, if I owned Naruto.

-

-

-

The room was cold, that's for sure. Several shelves stood tall, many of which were covered in a thin layer of dust. Zetsu flipped a light switch when he and Sakura walked in. The light poured through the room, revealing almost all of what was hidden in the darkness.

"Wow." Sakura said as she picked up a book and hugged it tightly. "I've never been this happy to see a book!"

"Sakura...That book is about rocks..." Zetsu's white side said. The pink-haired kunoichi raised an eyebrow and looked down at the cover of the book and sighed before setting it down on the table.

_'The wonderful world of rocks.'_

Zetsu's darker half chuckled before saying, "Sakura, I could teach you about plants if you'd like since rock apparently bore you."

Sakura smiled and nodded. "I'd like that."

The plant man nodded and walked into an aisle before pulling out a rusty brown book. The leather binding it was cracked, its spine was slightly misshapen, the letters on the cover were faded, and the pages were soft and yellowed. Zetsu placed the book a small wooden table in the center of the room before sitting down on a slightly battered chair. Zetsu opened the book to some random page and then motioned Sakura to sit down on the chair across from him. Sakura did as the plant man wanted and placed her hands on the table.

"Let's see..." Zetsu's white half began. "Ah. Let's begin."

.:.:.

"...In other words, if you prick someone with these spines, the victim will be infected with some crazy poison?" Sakura asked as she got Zetsu to nod slightly.

"Correct. But if drunk when crushed and heavily diluted, it can cure said poison among a few other types of snake venom."

"Zetsu, you've such a healthy abundance of knowledge about plants..." A small giggle escaped her lips. "Please continue; this is all very interesting."

Zetsu nodded and flipped a few more pages.

"Oh. My favorite flower." Zetsu stated as Sakura leaned over the table and looked at the book. In a picture was a bright red flower with gold specks leaping out from the center of it, like the heart of a fire. Large leaves that looked like they were ready to suffocate the flower surrounded it.

"A Fire Lily?" The girl inquired.

Zetsu smiled as he said, "It grows in Iwa's canyons. During the raining season, many plants grow. However, after that, brushfires spread throughout the country. Fire lilies only grow in ashes of other plants, like some types of trees. It's a massive flower, about two feet in length. It can get up to 3 feet tall, and it grows _fast_."

"Are there any uses for this oh so rare plant, Zetsu?"

"Hmmm..." The split man thought for a moment. "Ah. Its leaves are fire resistant. About 20 or so of these leaves sewn into a cloak can withstand the blast from most Kage level fire Jutsu."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"That's insane, Zetsu." Sakura commented, astonished as she studied the photo in the book.

"That's just nature, Sakura."

"Touché."

.:.:.

'_What are they saying?'_ A certain blonde man thought as he pressed his ear against the wooden door.

"Yes, thank you, Zetsu."

"Anytime."

'_Oh no...DAMMIT!!' _Deidara thought as he quickly scrambled away from the opening door.

"Dei-chan! What a surprise!" Sakura exclaimed with a smile on her face.

"Hello..." Zetsu's lighter side said. The more malevolent side chortled, "What's up, _Dei-chan?_"

"Shut up, Zetsu." Deidara snapped. Sakura rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

"Don't be so mean to Zetsu, Dei-chan." She huffed and looked at him as he stood up.

"_Yes, Dei-chan, don't be rude in front of a lady._" Zetsu snickered darkly.

'_What a coward..._' Deidara thought as he rolled his eyes. '_Hiding behind a little girl, un. Makes me sick. Wait...What the hell am I saying, un!?_'

"...Keep that book, Sakura." Zetsu said softly as he handed her the book they were reading a little earlier. Sakura smiled brightly as she took it from him and put it in the inner pocket of her cloak.

"Thanks again, Zetsu."

"You're welcome."

Deidara shook his head.

'_She's so weird...I'm surprised Zetsu hasn't bitten her head off, un.'_

The blond man sighed again as he took Sakura's hand and began dragging her away from the split man.

"D-Dei_dara_! Why the hell--" An innocently bewildered Sakura hissed as she tried to get him to release his grip on her.

"Shut up, un." Deidara growled. The ex-Konoha ninja sighed as she reluctantly walked behind Deidara.

_What the hell's gotten into this guy?_

Sakura quickly found herself pressed against a wall with Deidara looming over her. The pink haired girl raised an eyebrow and looked at the man staring down at her. A soft jade green fought against a stormy blue. She was obviously startled; her eyebrows were raised and her lips were parted slightly. Her words tumbled out of her mouth unexpectedly.

"Dei...Da...R--"

"Did he hurt you, un?" Deidara asked as he eased his grip on the fragile girl before him.

"No...Deidara, why...?" She asked, confused. He shook his head as he placed his hands on the wall she was leaning on. Sakura looked up and noticed how frustrated he looked. The kunoichi opened her mouth to ask something when he cut her off.

It was so sudden that Sakura thought that time had stopped. He was kissing her. It was official. Hell had frozen over.

_So that's why it was so damn cold in the headquarters. _

Deidara was running his tongue over her bottom lip, asking her to give him more access. She refused to give that to him. It didn't matter anyway as he gently slid his arm around her waist in some sort of attempt to make me kiss him back. She hadn't the slightest idea as to why he was doing what he was doing. But, he seemed a bit pleading. She felt bad. She kissed him back. And before she knew what was happening, they were in his room, on his bed. Sakura was of course, on top.

"Deidara!" She shrieked as she quickly slapped his hands away from her breasts. She sat up as fast as she could.

"What the hell!?"

Deidara sighed. "Sakura, un...I'm sorry but...Sakura...Please, un...?"

"No!" The man before her looked a little let down.

"Deidara, I can't...I'm only nineteen and--"

"Just forget it ever happened, un." He said as he shook his head. She looked down and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Deidara..." She mumbled as he swung his legs over the side of his bed.

"I'm gonna go take a shower." Deidara sighed again as he got off the bed and walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Sakura was left on the bed, baffled at what happened.

-

-

-

"Yamanaka, could you move a little? There a stick by your foot that you've seemed to miss."

"Whatever. Do stop talking to me, will you?"

"Whatever."

Hinata sighed as the two women, Izanami and Ino, bickered. Ino didn't like Izanami from the start, nor did Izanami like Ino. Ten-ten growled and decided to try and break the fight up.

"Girls, c'mon. We're here to collect firewood, not hit each other with it." Ten-ten hissed in annoyance. The blonde scowled while the other growled menacingly.

"Fine." They both spat in unison before walking away. Ten-ten sighed as she closed her eyes. "They are_ so_ going to get into a fight later on."

Hinata nodded quietly as Ten-ten opened her eyes and smirked.

"Let's start making bets with the guys on who they think will start the fight first, Hinata-chan."

"Yes,"

.:.:.

"There's a fish right there! No, Sasuke-Teme, right there! God, why won't it stop moving!? Hey, wait, no! Don't push me, wait, what are you, WAH!"

BLASH.

Naruto hissed as he rose from the icy water.

"Teme! What the hell--"

"Shut up, dobe. You're gonna scare the fish with the huge mouth of yours." Sasuke said nonchalantly. Naruto snickered and stared at him straight in the eye as he pointed to Sasuke's face.

"Nuh-Uh. Teme, the reason why there isn't anymore fish is because your scary-ass face made them swim away."

Sasuke put a hand in front of his face and pretended to push something away.

"Sorry. The mirror was still in the way. Now what were you saying, Dobe?"

"Why you--"

Kiba immediately cut in.

"Guys, guys, come on...If we don't catch any dinner, the girl's are gonna maul us...And I heard that Ten-ten's and Hinata's time are coming up in a few days... Remember what happened when someone pissed Ten-ten off? The guy was in rehab for so friggin long! And you know how scary Hinata can be when she's PMSing..."

Naruto and Sasuke sighed. Kiba was right; both women were reputed for their devilish nature during their times of the month.

"Fine." The Uchiha said as he quickly threw a kunai down into the water and pulled out a dying fish.

"This is gonna take forever." Neji said as he rolled his eyes.

The Inuzuka boy nodded with a smirk.

"Well then, let's hurry."


	9. Sneaky

The fire crackled loudly as the aroma of food hung thick in the air. Gathered around the fire was a team of 9 Shinobi on a rescue mission. But for now, their mission was to fill their stomachs and rest. As they waited for the fish to cook, the ninja were listening to Shikamaru explain the plan from getting where they were to Iwagakure.

"Anyway..." Shikamaru began as he wiped a bead of sweat away from his brow.

"The 'O' is us." He pointed to the symbol he drew in the dirt with a twig that he'd snapped off one of the logs. Dragging the wooden stick through the dirt to an X, he continued.

"The 'X' is Iwagakure. Now, I must warn you all, Iwagakure's terrain drastically differs from Konoha; Iwa is all Canyons, and their village is sitting on very stable rock, smack dab between two very large, very deep canyons.

"From here to Iwa is about 1500 kilometers. I've calculated our maximum speed. Going at about 20 kilometers at an hour, we can travel for 15 hours of the day, meaning we could cover at least 300 kilometers a day.

"As of now, Iwagakure is a good 5 days ahead of us. That will give us that last day to plan how intercept Sakura and her companions, who should be leaving on our 3rd or fourth day traveling."

Tenten's hand shot up.

"What if they leave early?"

Shikamaru took in a deep breath and replied, "This is why Izanami-san's here. If the Akatsuki change their plans, then Izanami will know and inform us."

"...Yes." Izanami replied as she rubbed her arms. Behind closed eyes, she tilted her head up a bit and sniffed slightly. "Ano...Is something burn--"

"Oh no! The fish!" Naruto screeched as he rocketed upwards and began kicking up dirt as he dashed to the flames, and quickly began plucking the burning fish away from the inferno.

.:.:.

"Kami..." Neji sighed as he studied one of the charred fish. "Are any of them edible?"

Naruto shrugged his wide shoulders before placing one of the fishes against his lips and took a taste. He chewed slightly before nodding.

"Mu-Huh!"

"Pass some over then, Naruto!" Kiba grinned as he got up and walked over to Naruto to receive his meal.

"We gotta eat this all fast, Akamaru's comin' back soon!"

Neji and Sasuke were the next ones to receive their fish. Both men 'Hn'd' before sitting down on the logs. They then began to fill their empty stomachs, like the two other boys before them. The Nara boy was wary, but he shrugged it off with a small 'troublesome' and ate his share. Izanami raised an eyebrow. The other girls looked cautious, almost terrified of receiving their meals. Being on the slightly clueless side, she asked Tenten on why none of the girls were stepping up to get their meals.

"Don't you know--Oh yeah. Sorry." Tenten smiled. "I forgot this is your first mission with all of us. Those goons usually play pranks on us...Little bastards. This time, we're planning to get them back. You in, Izanami-san?"

"Sure, why not." She smirked.

"Good. Hey, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Izanami-san's gonna help us." Tenten grinned.

"Care to fill me in on your...Um...Prank...?" Izanami slowly asked.

"Kukuku..." Tenten softly cackled.

"'Mere, Izanami-san." Tenten patted the unoccupied seat next to her. Izanami warily sat down and waited for Tenten to speak.

"First..."

-

-

-

"Stupid girl, un..." Deidara sighed as he closed his eyes and lowered his face so that his lips down were in the soapy warm water. His blonde hair swirled around his face in the water. A thought came across his mind as he pulled a strand of hair away from his face.

_How...Actually, scratch that. Why'd I do that again, un?_

Deidara opened his eyes and sat up in the bathtub before running his fingers through his thick, knotting, damp hair.

_Ah. Now I remember, un._

…

_"Here."_

_"What's this, un?"_

_"Leader-Sama wants you to file it then give it back to him. It is all of our records. Kisame-san is in his room polishing his sword, Leader-Sama is in the office, Tobi-san is in his room playing with toys and Zetsu-san and Sakura are reading in the library. "_

_"'Right, un."_

_He opened up the massive binder and began sorting through it._

_"Here's me...un." Deidara smirked as he looked through his papers. "And Itachi...Kisame...Leader...I guess I can throw Hidan's, Kakuzu's and Sasori-Danna's files into the deceased bin..." He mumbled as he tossed those papers onto the other side of the table. A certain file caught his eye._

_"Zetsu, un." The blonde man said as he grabbed the folder, opened it, and began to read._

**Name: **Zetsu Gahito

**Age: **32

**DOB: **May 23rd

**Sign: **Gemini

**Capabilities: **Can dispose of enemy nin and their secrets through cannibalism, can travel long distances through plants, has advanced knowledge of plants and earth style jutsu, has two minds.

**Notes: **Bipolar. One side of his body is black, while the other is white. Black side speaks with a robotic tone of sorts, has more of a malicious character. White side is calmer, speaks in a normal tone. Doesn't fuss about food, but would prefer beautiful female virgins.

_"Tch. Beautiful girl virgins, eh?" Deidara chuckled._

**Other notes: **Lures prey by leading them into an abandoned room. Attacks, partially kills them, then devours them while there's still blood pumping through the victim.

_"Heh, who would fall for such a stupid thing?"_ _He asked himself as he put down the file. After fixing the rest of the papers, __Itachi's words hit him like an incoming train._

"...and Zetsu-san and Sakura are reading in the library together."

_'...Sakura! She's gonna get herself eaten alive, un!!'_ _Deidara shot up out of his wooden chair, clumsily bumping his leg against one of the table legs, and cursing before jolting out of the room. _

_'Where's the library!? Wait, when the hell did we get a fucking library, un!?' Deidara mentally shrieked as he raced through the halls, his cloak flapping after him._ _After several minutes of searching, running into several doors, walking in on people, and nearly tripping, Deidara found the library door._

_'Finally, un!' He thought as his hands flew to the knob. 'DAMMIT! It's locked!'_

_With a frustrated sigh, Deidara reached into his pocket and placed some of his clay on the knob. Just as he was about to make it explode, he heard someone talking. _

_"!!" Deidara quickly pressed his ear against the door. _

_"_That's just insanity, Zetsu._"_

_'What are they saying?'_

_"_That's just nature, Sakura._"_

_'Fuck it all, un.' _

_"_Touché..._"_

.:.:.

'Bizzare...' Sakura thought as she attempted to rub the drowsiness out of her eyes.

She was lying down on Deidara's bed, the soft, dark crumpled blanket slightly folded back and the various colored pillows, except for the one supporting her head, lay scattered across the mattress. Sakura was wearing a thin, over sized ash gray shirt and a pair of thin red night shorts with white stripes running down the sides.

'Whatever...' Sakura sighed as she tugged away the thick blanket and sat kunoichi reached for the silver handle for the table drawer. Sakura pulled it open and took out a black hair tie. After promptly closing the drawer and putting the tie around her wrist, she reached upwards towards her hair and began to tie her hair up. The product wasn't too messy, but at the very least her hair was _up_. Lying back down onto the pillow behind her, Sakura rested her hands on her stomach, her fingers entwining. Lidding her eyes, she took a deep breath before falling asleep.

-

-

-

Night fell and the team of 9 retreated back into their crude, canvas tents.

The girls giggled anxiously as they sat together in their tent.

"Great work..." Tenten grinned as she clapped her hands together. "As soon as they wake up..."

Ino and Izanami ended up giggling. Hinata smiled slightly as she watched her friends enjoy the thought of their scheme.

"This is going to be great." Ino sneered as she slowly recovered from her giggling session.

"Not only will they be scarred for life, but we'll get to question their sexuality!"

"Yeah...That drinking contest really pushed things along...Naruto-san was really into it...Too bad all of the sake is gone." Izanami laughed.

"Yeah. I wish he brought the sweeter sake though. Oh well, it was _so_ worth it, seeing Sasuke and Neji all drunk like that. I was really surprised to see that they couldn't hold their liquor very well." Ino smiled.

"They're intoxicated. That all that matters, girls." Tenten smiled.

"I-I hope they don't freak o-out too bad..." Hinata said softly. "I wouldn't want it to jeopardize our mission."

"Yeah...But it's fine. Pay back, it's nothing _too_ serious." Ino replied.

-

-

-

Deidara stepped out of the bathtub and wrapped himself in a white bathrobe and his hair in a matching towel. He then pulled his sleeve up before tugging on the bath plug. Walking away, he stopped in front of his large wall mirror.

Moving to the side to get to a wooden cabinet, Deidara took a blow drier and a giant blue hair brush out. The hairbrush was thick with a mat of Deidara's golden locks.

Sighing, the Ex-Iwa ninja plugged the blow drier into the electric socket. Scowling, he flipped the on switch for the drier.

_WHRRRRRRRRRRR!!_

The roar of his blow dryer filled the bathroom, much to his dislike.

"Kami, I hate doing this..." Deidara sighed as he brushed through his drying hair with his hair brush.

Some many minutes later, Deidara successfully dried his hair. His arms were cramped insanely from holding his arms up so long. He quickly unplugged the hair dryer and stowed it along with his brush away back into the cabinet.

The man rejected the idea of tying his hair up and pulled on his boxers before opening up the door and hitting the lights to the bathroom. He looked at Sakura and sighed. She, to him, kind of resembled a starfish because of her limbs that were spread out.

'Great, un.' Deidara sighed as he unconsciously slumped while walking to his bed. 'Just perfect.'

He gently pushed her aside to make room for himself, lest he lay down on her limbs. Deidara then, being careful not to wake her up, quickly lied down next to her. He rolled over slightly; he didn't want to face her right now. He closed his eyes, and in a couple minutes, when he felt like he was about to fall asleep...

"_Oi! Deidara! Sakura! Wake up!_"

Growling menacingly, Deidara sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He proceeded to the door and opened it to stare up at Kisame.

"_What._ _Do. You. Want. Kisame._" Deidara hissed through his gritted teeth.

"Sir Leader wants to see you two immediately. So hop to it, _Dei-chan._" Kisame grinned toothily. Deidara shot him a glare and slammed the door on his face. That resulted in Sakura quickly sitting upright and looking at Deidara in confusion.

"Are we under attack??"

"No, un." Deidara sighed as he walked to his closet and began to look for their cloaks. "Leader wants to see us."

"Mou, _now??_" Sakura groaned as she stood up.

"Yes, un." Deidara replied as he pulled on his cloak and tossed Sakura's cloak to the girl. She caught it and put it own as she groaned once again.

-

-

-

"GOD, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto chortled as he clutched his bare, aching sides. Only Kiba and himself were in _just_ their boxers. The rest of the men had shirts on.

"You're such a fucking pansy!! I can't believe you can't hold out long enough for a 3rd cup!"

Sasuke, who was seating on his sleeping bag, glared daggers at his blonde teammate.

"Shut up, dobe."

"Agreed." Neji sighed as he smoothed out his sleeping bag.

"You're no better, Neji!" Kiba grinned. Naruto nodded vigorously and added, "But you at least beat Sasuke by 2 cups!"

Shikamaru was in his sleeping bag, listening to the conversation, which amused him to no end.

'Idiots.'

Their laughter soon died down into little chuckles here and there.

"So, do you think they're gonna try to get us this time?" Kiba asked.

"Hn." Sasuke replied. "No."

"Why's that, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto inquired with his eyebrow raised.

"Because, dobe, Hyuuga or I already disabled their little 'trap'." The Uchiha replied. He motioned to a wire sticking out from the side of the tent.

"They were planning to pour syrup on us."

"How troublesome." Shikamaru sighed while Naruto grinned. "

Well, at least we're not gonna get punk'd this time, eh?" He lied down in his sleeping bag and yawned. Kiba, Neji, and Sasuke shortly followed that.

"Night everyone!" Naruto smirked as he closed his eyes.

-

-

-

"Leader...?" Sakura asked softly as she and Deidara stepped into Pein's office. They were both wearing their cloaks, their pajama's hidden underneath the dark cloth. Sakura looked around for a moment. Itachi was already there, seated on a wooden chair by the corner of the room. She then looked to Pein. He was sitting on his large chair, behind a dark wooden desk with papers littered on the top. This, for a second, sent a flashback of her Shishou to her. The Haruno girl ignored it and turned her attention back to her Leader.

"Take a seat, you two." Pein said. The two shinobi didn't reply and immediately obeyed.

"Now you three--" Leader paused. Itachi already knew why he was here.

"...Two, must be wondering why you are here."

A quick nod was what their response was.

"I have recently learned that a team of Leaf Ninja have planned to intercept you three from getting to Iwagakure. With them, I hear, is our little Izanami."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. _Izanami...?_ She then caught a glimpse of something in the corners of her eyes. Sakura had seen Deidara flinch and she watched as Itachi's eyes slowly narrowed. Her hand shot up.

"Leader, who--"

"Itachi and Deidara will explain." Leader interjected. "Now, in hearing this, I want all of you to leave first thing tomorrow at 4:00 am sharp." Sakura's hand went up again.

"Yes, Sakura?"

"Why--"

"Again," Leader began, his tone not changing. "They will explain. But you all understand that you must leave early tomorrow, correct?"

A short wave of nods.

"Good. You are all dismissed." The three stood and quickly headed to the door. When they had all exited from the room, Sakura closed the door behind them. The pink haired woman looked up at the two men before her.

"Okay, go on. Start explaining to me who the hell this Izanami is." Sakura said quickly. Itachi and Deidara glanced at each other before Deidara sighed and began to explain.

"We had bought her--"

"_Bought _her??" Sakura inquired. "Is she a _whore_ or something?"

"Don't interrupt me, un." Deidara snapped. The blonde man sighed again before continuing, "We had bought her from slave merchants when she was about 13 years old. She told us she was originally from Rain."

"Kisame-san and I had taken the liberty to broaden her fighting skills." Itachi added. "Zetsu had taught her about herbs and plants."

"We had ambushed tons of passing medical ninja from the 5 across great nations to train her, un." Deidara said. "We killed them after they had taught her everything they knew."

He lifted up his left sleeve. Several light scars marred the tanned flesh of his arm.

"When my arms were taken off during the time when I had captured the Shukaku and fought your teammates, Kakuzu-san had reattached them, un. Izanami had finally dug up enough information to permanently fix them about two years ago, un."

"How'd she do it?" Sakura asked.

"She learned how to direct chakra from someone else's body to another, un. She really had to be careful in doing this though...Since she was using Kisame's chakra to heal my arms, un."

"Pfft. I learned how to do that when I was thirteen." The pink haired woman scoffed."Besides being a second rate medic, can she do anything else?"

"Jikan." Itachi said.

Sakura raised a thin, pink eyebrow. "Pardon?"

Itachi was silent for a moment before saying, "Jikan. Her clan has a doujutsu called the Jikan."

"And this allows her to do...? Elaborate, please." Sakura said slowly.

"She can see into the past, present, and future, un." Deidara replied. "Really great for interrogation and all that crap."

Sakura became quiet for a couple of seconds before she asked, "Okay, what does she look like?"

Deidara grinned at this. "She was so goddamn fugly when we got her, un. But when she hit puberty a year later, she got 'pretty', un!"

"I asked what she looked like, Deidara." Sakura sighed.

"Not your opinion...But, what the hell does 'fugly' mean?"

"Fucking ugly, un."

"Oh. Um...Okay then, how about a description of her 'physical' traits?"

"Izanami had silver eyes. She had long, dark hair and she was a bit pale, but--"

"She was so freaking pale, un!" Deidara said, waving his arms around a bit to prove his point before pointing to Itachi's exposed hand. "Extremely. She was paler than Itachi, here, un."

"Anything else I should know about her?" Sakura said after a short moment of letting the information sink in.

"No. Not really." Itachi said as he turned around and began to walk down the hall.

"Oh, ah...Good night, Itachi-kun!" Sakura quickly said to the departing Uchiha.

"Good night, Sakura." He said in return without looking at her as evanesced down the hall. Sakura watched him leave and slowly realized that Deidara was tapping his foot on the ground.

Loudly.

"Huh?" Sakura looked back at Deidara. The blonde man sighed.

"Let's just go, Sakura..."

"Alright." She replied with a smile as Deidara turned and started off in the opposite direction of Itachi. Sakura followed in suit.


	10. Prank

"All packed?" Sakura smiled as she met up with the other two men next to the large stone entrance of the Akatsuki Lair. Her light gray backpack's strap was slung across her shoulders and she had her new gloves on.

_Never know when you might need them_, she told herself.

Itachi and Deidara didn't say anything, but they nodded. Sakura smiled a little more and palmed the stone wall until she found a hidden mechanism. She gently pushed the button there and watched as the stone door opened slowly.

"Watching this has always been so mind numbing for me." Sakura sighed as it opened enough for all of them to go through. It was dark outside; the stars were still twinkling in the black sky. Sakura grinned and took a deep breath of the fresh, crisp air and stepped out of the lair. When the three of them were all out, Sakura stomped down on another mechanism. The stone gate then fell as slowly as it rose. But by the time the gate had hit the ground, the three were already off.

'Can you guys catch me?' Sakura asked, referring to the team of Konoha ninja. She grinned to herself as she flew from branch to branch with her, as she called them, teammates.

-

-

-

"..."

"Shaddup..." Kiba groaned as he slammed his hand against an 'dog' alarm clock he set next to him the night before. He kept his eyes shut and shortly realized how warm he was. Before long, he realized he was lying on something very soft, very smooth. And this soft smooth thing had a heartbeat. Kiba could also feel extremely soft hair tickling his arm and chest.

Thinking he was dreaming of lying in bed with a beautiful woman, he kept his eyes shut and licked the person under him. Kiba gently sucked on the skin there and heard a soft groan. The poor man opened his eyes. Oh how he wished he was dreaming. Underneath him slept Hyuuga Neji.

Kiba shuddered in terror as he jumped up. The horrified Inuzuka looked around. Shikamaru was missing. Oh well. Then he turned to find his other two teammates. His eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"Na-Naruto...?"

The slumbering blondie was lying on top of an equally unconscious Sasuke, his face buried in the Uchiha's chest and arms around Sasuke's waist. The said Uchiha was missing his shirt and had his arms wrapped around the Kyuubi-Boy.

"Baby, you've got such soft skin..." Naruto mumbled as he rubbed his cheek against Sasuke's chest. Sasuke in return groaned and rubbed Naruto's back.

Kiba noticed Naruto's hand sliding down Sasuke's stomach, inch by inch, his tanned hand neared the rim of Sasuke's dark blue boxers.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!_" Kiba squealed hysterically as he rushed to the sleeping two men and kicked Naruto off of Sasuke.

"WHAT THE FUUUHH!!" Naruto yelped as he rolled off Sasuke. The said Uchiha shot up and looked around before focusing on Kiba.

"What the hell happened?"

Kiba turned a shade of red. "Y-You and Na-Naruto were..."

"Were...?" Sasuke echoed. Kiba saw his dark eyes narrow.

"...MOLESTING EACH OTHER!!"

Sasuke, had he not been an Uchiha and had his pride not been bigger than a blue whale, would have freaked out. However, he was indeed an Uchiha, and his pride was truly so much bigger than _just_ a blue whale.

"We WHAT!?" Naruto shrieked. Kiba nodded violently.

"OH MY GOD!!!!" The whiskered man shouted. "NOT AGAIN!!!"

"Again, dobe?"

"Yeah, again, Sasuke..." Naruto hissed. "Remember? Back when we were twelve? At the Academy...?"

"Shut up." Sasuke glared. He shuddered slightly before closing his eyes. "This is so humiliating..."

"No kidding." Kiba sighed as he rubbed his arms.

'Ew. I think I raped Neji too..Ugh...'

"Ew...What the hell? There's some sort of sticky liquid on my chest..." Neji suddenly said as he wiped his chest. "...Hold on, Kiba, what the hell is my shirt doing sticking out of your boxers??"

Naruto stared hard at Kiba before opening his mouth.

"KIBA!?!?!"

.:.:.

The girls had woken up about 30 minutes before the boys had. Shikamaru had gotten up before they had, and had told them that he knew about their plan already and didn't want to get involved. He was gone; off to find a spring to refill the water bottles.

They had already taken down their tent a couple of minutes ago. All of the girls were now all sitting outside on the logs of the guy's tent and were giggling at the response they were getting from them.

"N-NEJI!! I-I can't t-take your damn shirt out of my boxers!! I think that they're stuck...Hold on."

"**DON'T TAKE OFF YOUR BOXERS, YOU IDIOT**!!"

Tenten and Ino fell off the logs laughing. Hinata was silently giggling but felt a little bad for them. Izanami had bitten her lip so hard that her lip bled a little.

"I can't believe you managed to sew his shirt into Kiba's boxers, Tenten-san..." Izanami marveled.

Tenten grinned evilly as she replied to her teammate, "But you and Ino were the ones who position Kiba and Naruto onto the two 'Uke'."

"W-Weren't h-heavy?" Hinata smiled gently.

"Only a little." Ino said with a grin plastered onto her face.

"...But I didn't really lift them...Ino-san and I kind of dragged them...I think I might have hit Sasuke's head on one of the bamboo canteens..." Izanami smiled sheepishly.

Tenten laughed as Hinata spoke up, "I t-think K-Kiba-kun scared a f-few b-birds when he screamed..."

"He scared me when he screamed..." Ino smiled as she twirled a lock of her blonde hair with her finger. "Well, I hope they don't try to butcher us."

"Agreed." The other three women said in unison.

-

-

-

The 3 Akatsuki leapt from branch to branch with ease. The only sound coming off from them was the fluttering of their black cloaks.

"How far are we from Iwa?" Sakura suddenly asked, not caring who would answer.

"We are currently about..." Deidara drawled as he pressed some buttons on the side of his scope."1045 kilometers away from the canyons."

"And we've traveled how far?"

"255 kilometers, un."

Sakura knit her eyebrows. 'Konoha is about 1500 kilometers from Iwa...And an average team can travel about 300 kilometers a day, so if the team that's after us has already gotten 2 days worth of travel...Hold on, math. 300 times two equals 600. 1500 minus 600 equals 9--'

The calculating kunoichi was quickly shoved aside by Deidara. She quickly landed on a nearby branch. Noticing that the other two were still scaling branches, Sakura jolted after them. As soon as she caught up with Itachi and Deidara, she glared up at the blonde.

"What was that for!?" Sakura hissed irritably.

Deidara grinned. "You nearly ran smack dab into a branch, un."

Sakura blushed a little for yelling at him. "Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, whatever, un."

'Fine.' Sakura sighed. 'Anyways..1500 minus 600...900, and we're 945 kilometers awa...'

"Shoot!" She shouted out suddenly as she jumped another branch.

"What is it." Itachi asked without turning to her.

"The Konoha team is 145 kilometers ahead of us!"

Deidara and Itachi both landed on a very thick branch. Deidara raised an eyebrow at the girl as he turned around to face her. "_What?_"

Sakura stopped and crouched on a branch above the two men before explaining.

"...This isn't good, un." Deidara whispered. "They just might be able to intercept us..."

Sakura nodded grimly.

"We'll take off at full speed then." Spoke Itachi. "It will command chakra, but within a day or two, we'll be ahead of them. Understood?"

"Hai."

"...Hai, un."

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment before turning around and disappearing for a moment. He reappeared seconds later, many yards away from where he originally stood.

Sakura and Deidara glanced at each other before evaporating from the branch and following after Itachi.

-

-

-

"We're off to go find dinner and wood, guys!" Naruto smiled brightly. "See ya later!"

Naruto, Hinata, Tenten, Ino, and Kiba, and Akamaru took off from their spots, leaving Neji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Izanami back at the camp.

As Shikamaru quickly began to go deeper into the plan with Neji, Izanami and Sasuke wandered off into the forest. Sasuke had actually asked Izanami to follow him, and, without a second thought, she agreed.

.:.:.

"Shikamaru." Neji began. "Who do you suppose the man with the dark hair and the man with the blonde hair that Izanami-san mentioned are?"

"I don't really have a clue, Neji." Shikamaru replied as he scribbled down notes in his white note pad. "For all I know, there could be legions of ninja in the Akatsuki. Jiraiya-sama may have probably only known about those people, because they are the best of the best. There's no real way to be--"

A shrill shriek from a distance interrupted Shikamaru. He and Neji looked up as another scream, a cry of sheer horror, erupted from out of the forest.

"What was that?" Shikamaru asked in confusion.

"I don't know. But should we check it out...?" Neji suggested. Shikamaru stood up and stowed his pen and note pad away in his pocket. "I think we should...It might be someone getting attacked or something."

Neji stood as well. "Alright, let's get going."

.:.:.

"Everyone! We're baaack!" Naruto sang as he and the rest of his group returned to the camp with either fish or firewood in their arms. To everyone's surprise, their camp was empty.

"Where'd everyone go?" Kiba asked as he set down a couple logs. Hinata looked around and set down the skewered fish. She looked back up with a fearful expression. "

What i-if they got..."

"I doubt it, Hina-chan..." Naruto said, putting his armful of logs down like Kiba. Ino put her armful of fish next to Hinata's pile, Tenten did the same a few seconds later. Ino grabbed a blanket from the ground next to one of the tents and wiped her arms with it.

"...Hinata, use your Byakugan...?" Tenten suggested. Hinata blushed slightly for not thinking of that herself.

"Ok..." She made a hand sign.

"Byakugan!" Veins spread out from her eyes as she slowly began to rotate so she didn't have any blind spots. The Hyuuga girl suddenly stopped after a short period of time. "I-I...I think I see something..." Hinata squinted.

"Where?" Ino asked.

"There!" She said, pointing in one direction.

"F-Follow m-me!" Hinata then took off in a direction. The group quickly followed her. Ino didn't have the time to throw the blanket down, so she took it with her. It only took them a few minutes to reach the place where Hinata had suspected she had seen something. But, when she stopped at their destination, her eyes widened in horror. Slowly, the rest of the group stood next to her. Naruto, who was running at the rear, finally landed behind them and noticed that they looked all terror-struck.

"Hinata-chan, what is--" Naruto began before he looked up. "Eh?!"

-

-

-

"We've gone on long enough." Itachi said as he turned towards his panting teammates before walking out into the center of a little clearing he had found. "Let's rest."

Sakura smiled gratefully as she sat down in the dry leaves with her legs crossed.

"My legs feel like they're about to fall off."

"Knock on wood, Sakura. We don't want that to happen, un." Deidara snickered. She looked up at him with a fire burning in her green eyes.

"Shut up! You look like you're about to drop too!" Sakura wasn't lying when she said that. Deidara's hair was wind blown, his cheeks were tinted red, and there was sweat dripping off his brow. However, Sakura didn't look too different from him. Some of her hair stuck to her sweat coated face while the rest was falling out of her now loose ponytail.

"You're one to talk." Deidara scoffed. Sakura rolled her eyes and stood.

"I'm going to go take a bath." She declared before walking off into the woods. Deidara's eyes followed her as she disappeared behind the trees before sighing. Gentle clapping could be heard from Itachi.

"Once again, good job Romeo." The Uchiha stated before dodging a twig that was thrown at him.

"Shut up, un!"


	11. Closer

**WARNING:**

There is a graphic dark-lemon scene below when the chapter goes to Naruto and his team. BEWARE.

You have been warned.

-

-

-

Sakura stood in the relaxing waters of a hot-spring with a look of contentment all over her face. Steam danced off the top of the water before disappearing into the cooler air above. The area around the spring was all rock with maybe a few little plants here and there. Sakura finger-combed her pink hair and untangled it as much as she could. Sakura ducked underneath the water and rose up a few seconds later.

"How's the water, un?"

Sakura shrieked at the obviously other presence and glared up at the smirking, and notably shirtless man, named Deidara. He was probably in that long, black towel that fell a little past his knees.

"What the hell do you want??" Sakura growled as she lowered herself in the water so that only her neck up was visible.

Deidara merely shrugged as he crouched down and loomed over the water. He ran his fingers across the surface, testing the heat.

"Ah. It's nice and warm, un. I think I'll jump in too." He smiled as he stood up.

Sakura twitched and splashed some water at his face. Deidara ended up _accidentally_ falling into the water. He rose up from the spring and sighed contently.

"This is the life, un." Deidara grinned evilly.

"PERVERT! OUT!!" The pink haired woman shrieked as she started to hit his back. The Akatsuki man simply ignored her protests and began to swim through the water. Sakura felt as though she was going to explode with anger. She waded through the water, picked up a large stone, and hurled it at his head. Fortunately for Deidara, he had ducked underneath the water to avoid it. But when he rose up again to breathe, he was hit with a small pebble. This resulted in him falling unconscious.

"SHIT!" Sakura whined as she swam over to him and locked an arm with his. She then, with Deidara fast asleep, put him up on the submerged rocks so that he wouldn't drown. Sakura sighed, clearly irritated, and muttered, "Damn it."

-

**WARNING**

-

Scraps of clothing littered the area, mingling in with the decaying leaves that fell from the trees. Blood was splattered on the bark of one tree. Below in front of the trunk was Neji, his eyes shut. He had a large wound in his abdomen. A few feet away was Shikamaru, facedown. His ankle was twisted in a way that was too awful for words. But it didn't stop there.

Tied up to a tree with bright blue chakra strings that cut into her skin, was Izanami. Despite the fact that her long hair partially obscured her face, the team could tell that she had been gagged; there was a dark blue cloth that looked strangely like part of Sasuke's shirt in her mouth.

Her clothes were torn away leaving her body almost bare, blood dripping from various cuts on her body, bruises marred her pale flesh, and there was tape covering her mouth. Not only that, but there seemed to be a drying white liquid that ran down her thighs. Tenten and Hinata quickly rushed to Neji and Shikamaru.

"Neji-neesan!" Hinata shrieked as she looked at him, terrified.

"Kami, _N-Neji-neesan_!!" The pale-eyed girl panicked as she quickly felt for heartbeat.

"H-He has a p-pulse..." She stammered as she quickly reached into her back pocket for bandages. Tenten turned Shikamaru over and felt for a pulse as well.

"Same here...Thank god." She said.

"Mmf...!!"

They turned to where the sound came from.

"Izanami-san!" Naruto said as he rushed to her. "You're alive!"

"You dolt, get her down from there!!" Ino hissed.

Naruto nodded.

"Right." He quickly snapped the ropes by effortlessly tearing it up, although he earned some cuts on his hands from it. The rope dissipated afterwards. Izanami sunk to the floor. Ino ran and, realizing she had a blanket in her hands, wrapped the bleeding girl in it. Pulling her shirt over her head, Ino folded it and put it underneath Izanami's head for support. She quickly took the piece of cloth from her mouth and tossed it aside.

"Izanami-san, what happened?" Ino gently asked.

"And where's Sasuke-teme?" Naruto added.

Izanami shivered slightly. "He...Is gone..."

"Gone?" Naruto asked. "How?"

"Left.

"Why? When??"

Izanami shut her eyes.

"I told him that...One of the men with Sakura-san is...Uchiha Itachi...And...He...He..."

Kiba ground his teeth in anticipation. "He what??"

"Left to find him...B-But...Before that...Sasuke..." Izanami was cut off by Ino.

"He tied you to the tree and raped you, didn't he?" The blonde woman asked softly.

Izanami bit her bottom lip. "And made me take a chakra suppressant so I couldn't fight back...He said that...If he died trying to kill Itachi, at least he'd have an heir to carry out his mission."

"Just get an abortion!" Ino said.

Izanami gently shook, or tried to shake, her head. "N-No...He put a jutsu...On me...If I intentionally killed the baby...The baby would die along with my little sister..." She paused.

"I was screaming for him to stop, for someone to hear me...Shikamaru and Neji came...Try tried to help me but...Sasuke...He attacked them and made me watch. And then when he was finished with them...He came back up to me and said..."

_I want my little boy to be named 'Fukushuu,_ love. _Don't forget that, Izanami._

"And...He took off..." Izanami mumbled. She looked at the unconscious Shikamaru and Neji.

"...P-please, take care of them. Hurry."

Naruto was filled with rage with Izanami's explanation. "Izanami-san, can you still fight?"

Izanami was silent for a moment. "Yeah..."

"Details, please, Izanami-san. What happened?"

Izanami went silent.

"Izanami-san!"

She was still quiet as she nodded weakly and began.

...

"_Iza." Sasuke said softly as he looked up from her neck._ _She opened her eyes and looked down at him. _

"_Hm?"_

"_Who are the two men with Sakura?" He asked gently._ _Izanami closed her eyes for a moment before gasping quietly._

"_Who are they?"_

"_...I...I only can identify one of them..."_

"_Who?"_

"_Uchiha Itachi."_

_Sasuke knit his brows at this. He turned away for a moment, just a moment, before turning back to her and kissing her roughly. Sasuke forced her mouth to open and slid his tongue in. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sucked on his tongue._ _He pulled away after a little while offered her his water canister. When she refused, he only insisted. So she complied and took a small sip. Sasuke then pulled her up from the log they were sitting on as he stood himself. _

"_Follow me...?"_

_Izanami, without thinking twice, nodded. He took her deep into the forest, away from Shikamaru and Neji._

"_Sasuke...?" The dark haired girl asked quietly. "Where are we going...?"_

_The Uchiha neglected to look at her as he replied, "You'll see, Iza...Don't worry."_

_Izanami merely smiled trustingly. "Alright."_

_They walked for a few more minutes before he finally stopped. Turning around, Sasuke looked intently at the innocently bewildered Izanami before crushing his lips against hers._ _Izanami pulled away after a short while. He proceeded to leave hickeys on her neck as he began to pull down her dark spandex pants. She grabbed his hand and led it away._

"_Sasuke." Izanami said quickly. "I already told you—"_

"_You'll refuse to have sex until after you're married." Sasuke sighed._

"_But Iza..." He kissed her lips. "I love you so much..."_

"_I love you too but...Please, I've still got morals, stop it..." She whispered._ _Izanami raised an eyebrow at the pregnant silence between them._

"_Sasuke?" She asked. "Why—" She was thrown into a tree. She heard a loud crack from the crushed bark behind her. _

"_Shut up_._" Sasuke growled. His eyes burned with his Sharingan; its commas spinning madly. Izanami's eyes widened when she looked into his eyes._

"_S-Sasuke." The girl stammered as he walked towards her. "W-What are y-you doing??"_

_He made a hand sign. A coil of electric blue rope appeared in his hands. He lifted her up, she tried to resist, but realized that her chakra wasn't cooperating with her. It seemed to be...Gone. _

Wait.

_He had put a chakra suppressant in the water she drank. Sasuke merely grinned as he kissed her again and tied her against the tree. _

"_I said, _shut up_."_

_Izanami squirmed as he proceeded to tear off her clothes with ease, despite the chakra rope that bound her. _

"_Sasuke!" She shrieked._ _Sasuke grinned maliciously as he tossed aside chunks of her clothes._

"_Scream all you want, love. No one can hear you out here." He said as he tore off her pants, leaving her in a pair of matching black undergarments. With that, he proceeded to unbuckle his pants. His moderately sized penis sprung free from his black spandex pants and thin blue boxers as he pulled them down. _

_Izanami stared in horror. Something in her clicked and she screamed as loud as she could, hoping someone would hear her. Sasuke looked at her and glared. He went up to her, not caring that he was half naked. Ripping her panties off, he lifted up and spread her pale legs. Sasuke then quickly shoved his cock into her; not caring that she was still a virgin and that she would clearly be in pain._

"_Please, Sasuke, d-don't!" Izanami yelped as she desperately blinked back her tears. Painful...And he was tearing her apart...! Sasuke grinned sadistically as he brushed away her onyx hair, took off her brasserie, and began to quickly thrust in on out of the woman before him._

"_W-why?" Izanami hissed as angry tears fell down her face. He kissed her nipple before looking at her._

"_Simple, I need to kill my brother." Sasuke said, his dark bangs falling over his eyes. "And if I don't make it out alive...Well, love, I need a guaranteed heir to live on."_

_He brushed away the tears from her face. "Now don't cry, Izanami. If you kill my child, that sister of yours goes with it."_

"_N-no..." Izanami whispered with dread in her tone as more tears fell down her face. "Leave my sister out of this!"_

_Sasuke laughed darkly as he continued to thrust in and out of her. "I don't intend to."_

_Izanami closed her eyes. "I hate you..."_

"_Hn, but a minute ago, love, you told me you loved me." Sasuke smiled. "Were you lying?"_

_Izanami opened her eyes and glared at him. "I hate you...I HATE YOU!!"_

_The Uchiha merely ignored her. She bit her bottom lip and screamed again._

"_God, SHUT UP." Sasuke barked as he tore off a piece of his shirt and stuffed it into her mouth. "You're so damn annoying." He glowered. "You should be honored to bear _my _child, Sweetheart."_

_Suddenly, Shikamaru and Neji emerged from the bushes._

"_Uchiha!" Neji hissed as he glared at the scene. "What the hell are you doing!?"_

"_I'm trying to revive my clan." Sasuke grinned. "Pretty little thing, isn't she? Strong enough to be the mother of my child?"_

"_Uchiha." Shikamaru said. "This is treason. Raping one of your own fellow shinobi."_

"_I don't give a fuck." Sasuke said and looked down at himself and Izanami. He quickly corrected himself. "Well, actually, I do."_

_Izanami looked at them helplessly as she tried to break out of the bindings around her, but her attempts were useless._ _Shikamaru appeared behind Sasuke and threw him away from Izanami._

"_We're going to get you out of here, Izanami-san..." He said gently before behind kicked from behind._ _Sasuke had pulled his pants back on and was dodging Neji's attacks. Building up chakra in his hands, static rose from his left hand along with the sounds of birds chirping wildly. Chidori._

Chirp chirp chirp chirp—

_The 3 men went at it for a short while. Ultimately, Neji was thrown against a tree. Had he had the chance to recover quickly, the Hyuuga might have just been able to dodge Sasuke's Chidori. _ _Neji didn't get that ability, however, and received a massive blow to his stomach. Sasuke turned around to face Shikamaru and cracked his knuckles as Neji sunk to the floor._

_Distracted, Shikamaru cried out "N-Neji!!"_

_That opened up a path for Sasuke. Within seconds, Sasuke had delivered a blow to Shikamaru's head. The Nara boy twisted around and fell to the ground, unconscious. The Sharingan-User turned back to a crying Izanami with a sickeningly sweet grin plastered on his face._

"_Now, where were we?"_

"And...The rest is obvious..." Izanami said softly, dabbing the tears from her eyes.

Naruto looked absolutely livid. His eyes, normally a fun hue of blue, were now red with anger. Ino, Hinata, and Izanami all flinched in seeing him like this.

"How long ago was this?" He demanded.

"N-No more than half an hour ago..."

Naruto grit his teeth and glared at the ground.

"He could be anywhere by now..."

"N-Naruto-kun, please, calm down...She needs medical attention." Hinata said softly.

A short silence followed before the blonde man spoke, "Ino, Hinata-chan, let's take her back to camp."

"Right."

"Alright." Naruto replied. "Tenten, Kiba."

"Right." The two said simultaneously.

"Take Neji and Shikamaru back to Konoha. They're in no condition to fight."

"Hai." The two shinobi repeated. Kiba loaded the two unconscious men on Akamaru's back. Shortly afterwards, Kiba, Akamaru, Tenten, and the two injured men disappeared. Hinata strode back to the 3 remaining shinobi and sat down by Ino with a worried look crossing her features.

.:.:.

"Tsunade-sama!" Tenten yelled into her headpiece. Despite being hundreds of kilometers away from Konoha, the technology worked perfectly. Over the years, Konoha's smartest technicians had developed long distance communicators. However, the use of it was strictly for emergencies. This was because the communicator's battery was easily drained with long-term usage.

"Team RS, what's the problem?"

"We have two injured teammates, both looking like they're on the brink of death. We need emergency backup and quick."

"How far are you from the village?"

"About 250 kilos." Kiba answered.

"Who are the injured shinobi?"

"Hyuuga Neji and Nara Shikamaru."

"I will send teams to wait for you."

.:.:.

"All teams who are on C Rank or D-Rank missions within a 5 kilometer radius of the path from the Fire Country to Earth, this is your Hokage. Immediately abandon your posts and report to the nearest village!!" Tsunade roared into her head piece.

"Hai! Hokage-Sama!" An enthusiastic voice replied. "We shall be there with the power of youth to help!"

"There will be a team of Inuzuka Kiba and Ama Tenten with two injured Shinobi, Hyuuga Neji and Nara Shikamaru arriving at the closest village. Hurry."

.:.:.

"What the hell happened??" Tsunade demanded. She had Neji and Shikamaru placed in separate rooms and both were being treated. Neji had just finished a successful operation only a few hours ago and Shikamaru was in a coma.

"W-We suspect that Uchiha Sasuke attacked them along with Mikonoyomi Izanami." Kiba replied as he leaned against a wall to catch his breath. Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"Where is she then?"

"She's with the rest of the team, Hokage-sama..." Tenten mumbled. "She wasn't really badly hurt...But--"

"Uchiha Sasuke raped her." Kiba interrupted. Tsunade stood in front of the two seated ninja with an unreadable expression on her face.

"That bastard _what?_" She paused. "Where is he?"

"He fled...After Uchiha Itachi, one of the men with Sakura-chan." Kiba said. "Hinata, Ino, Naruto, Tenten, and I were gone at the time when he attacked and raped Izanami-san."

The blonde let out a frustrated sigh. "You two are to rest, and I'll send out a team to find him. Where do you think he is?"

"Around Iwa." Tenten muttered.

"Alright." Tsunade said.

"When I find him..." Tsunade began darkly as she began to walk away from the exhausted shinobi. "He'll be 6 feet under."

-

-

-

After Sakura was done with her bath, she got dressed, and wrapped Deidara up with his towel before hauling him back to the camp Itachi had set up. When she arrived, she was delighted to see six enormous fish roasting over the fire. She carelessly dropped Deidara by his tent and ran to Itachi.

"Is that dinner?!" Sakura squealed, pointing to the fish. Itachi nodded and removed a skewered fish from the fire before handing it to her. She happily took it, gave him a thank you, before eating hungrily.

"Oh, this is the best!" She grinned as she ate. Itachi looked over at the still stirring Deidara before asking Sakura what had happened. Sakura rolled her eyes at the blond man.

"He tried to bathe with me." She said nonchalantly.

"I didn't see your name on the goddamn spring!" Deidara hissed as he sat up and brushed the dirt and leaves from his legs.

"It wasn't yours, un."

"You had no right, though." Sakura replied. "I was there first."

"Well--"

"Deidara, shut up. She's done. Go take a bath so that I can later too." Itachi said with his usual monotone voice. Deidara growled slightly before grabbing a new towel and heading back to the spring with a slight huff. Sakura smirked triumphantly as she took another bite of her fish and smirked at his disappearing form.

"Take that, bitch."


	12. Split

Right. Uh, so, it's been like a year since I've updated this thing.

Yeah. Don't skewer me, please.

Uh, I've updated because I felt bad and I'm starting my new fic.

Uh... Yeah, Iza isn't supposed to be a mary-sue. I'm trying to make her as human as possible.

Er... Yup

-

-

-

Sakura closed her eyes as she settled into her sleeping bag. Since there was only 3 of there, they didn't want to waste bag space on tents. Deidara and Itachi were sleeping already around the crackling embers that were previously their fire. She looked up at the sky and sighed softly. Maybe she was home-sick.

"Awake?" Deidara whispered. Sakura looked up as he sat up.

"Yeah." Sakura said as she sat up as well.

"Want to take a walk?" He asked and she nodded without a second thought. She got out of her sleeping bag, as did he. They put on their cloaks because it was cold, and they started walking away from their camp. Itachi was fine by himself.

"Why can't you sleep, un," Deidara asked as he looked down at the tired looking girl.

"I've had a lot of things on my mind." Sakura said softly as she stepped over a log.

"Like?"

"Home." She muttered. Deidara stared at her and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Your home's with the Akatsuki, now." Deidara said. "Konoha's searching for you, but you don't want to go back, do you?"

"I guess not." She sighed softly. He rubbed her shoulder a bit.

"Why did you leave?" He asked.

"I left to get stronger." She stated. Deidara stopped and so did Sakura. He looked at her straight in the eye.

"That's a stupid reason." He said with his brows knit. She put her hands on her hips and glared.

"And I suppose your reason for leaving _your_ village was _better_?" Sakura shot back. Deidara sighed at the girl before him and crossed his arms.

"Of course _not._ We have the same reason, un." Deidara replied. "I regret my decision."

Sakura's gaze softened a bit, but she didn't bother to ask _why._ A pregnant silence ensued afterwards. As they trudged through the slightly damp forest, Sakura tripped over a hidden branch. Deidara swiftly caught her.

"Clumsy." He said as he picked her up and carried her bridal style deeper into the forest.

"I'm fine, let me walk. I'm an adult, Dei," Sakura whined. Deidara ignored her as he walked with her.

"_Deidara._" Sakura growled. "Let. Me. _Down._"

Deidara almost laughed.

"No can do, princess, un." He said as he kept walking into a clearing. "You're mine for the night,"

"Wah—" He gently set her down on a rock.

"There, happy, un?" Deidara grinned as he sat down next to her. Sakura looked up at him as he stared into the dark sky.

"Where are we?" She asked as he put his arm around her. Deidara looked down at her and pulled her closer to him.

"I have absolutely no idea." Deidara laughed as he rubbed her shoulder. Sakura smiled a little and took in the scenery.

"It's beautiful," She muttered as she realized the moon was lighting up the white flowers scattered across the clearing. Deidara smiled as he looked at her. The lighting was doing wonders for her.

This was what art was to him. He _knew_ that this moment wasn't going to last. Yet, he unknowingly extended the moment because he was still looking at her when he said,

"Yeah, it is," And she leaned on him a little more as he felt her relax.

-

-

-

"Tsunade baa-chan's sending reinforcements." Naruto announced to the remainder of his team; Hinata, Ino, and Izanami.

"Who are they?" Ino asked as she tightened the wrap on Izanami's arm. The injured girl winced as Ino finished bandaging her torn up arm.

"More than likely, it's gonna be Kakashi-sensei, Gai-Sensei, Bushy Brows, Sai-bastard, or Chouji," The team leader said. "Half of us are going to go find Sasuke. The other half's going after Sakura."

Naruto sighed as he looked at his hands. _Both_ of his teammates left him. He hadn't felt so alone in a long time and the old wounds were reopening. Hinata placed a delicate hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her pearly white eyes.

"It's going to be ok, Naruto-kun, we'll find them," She said with an enthusiastic voice. "I promise."

Naruto smiled as he kissed her forehead.

"Thank you, Hinata-chan." He said and looked at Izanami. "How are you feeling?"

"How do _you_ think?" Ino sighed before Izanami got the chance to answer. Izanami took in a deep breath before nodding a bit.

"I'm ok, physically." Izanami said.

"It's going to ok, Izanami-san," Naruto said gently. "We'll make sure to make that man suffer for everything he's done."

Izanami shuddered slightly as she felt a slight burst of energy come from Naruto.

"What was that?" She asked as she glanced at Hinata and Ino, who seemed unaffected.

"That's the demon fox letting out a little bit of energy," Naruto said as he put his arm around Hinata. "It happens whenever I feel any sort of strong emotion, Ino and Hina-chan are used to it."

"It's nothing to worry about, then?" Izanami asked as she lay down back onto her sleeping bag.

"No, not for you, Izanami-san," Naruto said, almost hinting at something dangerously. He and Hinata got up. "Rest, ok?"

"Alright," Izanami replied as she closed her eyes. And the rest of her teammates left her tent to go rest themselves.

-

-

-

"Yeah, it is," Deidara said. Sakura smiled as she leaned closer to him.

"What was it?" She asked as he pressed his cheek against her head.

"What was what, un?"

"Why did you kiss me that one time?" She asked as she looked up at him. Curious green met embarrassed blue.

"A-Ah, _that_." Deidara said. "Uh, well, you see, uh..."

"Spit it out, Dei-chan,"

"Mmm. Well, ok, you see, I was sorting out files for Itachi and I came across Zetsu's file. You know, I don't really talk to him and stuff, and... Well, let's just say his favorite snacks are girl virgins, un," Deidara said kind of fast.

"What makes you think I'm a virgin?" Sakura asked with a straight face. Deidara stared at her with a semi-horrified look before she broke into a laugh.

"I'm kidding!" She said with a grin as Deidara returned the smirk.

"Fooled me."

BAM.

"OW!!" Deidara yelped as Sakura crossed her arms. "Why the hell did you hit me?!"

"Bastard."

"_YOU_ SAID IT!" Deidara complained as he rubbed his head. "Crazy bitch..."

Sakura grumbled as she got up and started back for camp. Itachi's voice was coming back.

_10 out of 10, romeo._

Arggghhh.

"Sakura, wait," Deidara called as he grabbed her little wrist. "Sakura."

She spun around with a cute pout on her face.

"What."

Deidara sighed as he let go of her wrist.

"I was kidding, you should know me by now, un." He said. Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"Yeah, ok. Fine," She said as she turned to go back to camp. "I'm tired."

Deidara blocked her way, though as he pulled her into a loose hug.

"Dei, what are you doing?" She asked as he rubbed her back.

"I'm cold," He replied lamely as he buried his face in the crook of her warm neck. She laughed as he sat down on the grass and pulled her onto his lap.

"That's what a sleeping bag is for." She said. He smiled a little as he lifted his head from her neck. She squeaked softly as he closed his eyes and pressed his lips against hers...

Again.

But _how_ could she refuse his charm? She kissed him back. And soon, their slow, chaste kisses got feverish and somehow _hotter_.

"M-mou, Deidara," Sakura whispered as he trailed kisses up and down her neck. He could practically feel her melting in his arms. Deidara smiled a little until he felt her weave her tiny fingers through his hair and _tug_ a little.

Little did she know, that was a _huge_ turn-on to him.

"Sakura," He muttered as he ran his tongue from her collar bone to his chin. She shivered a little and he claimed her lips once again. Deidara tried to gain more access to her mouth, but she once again didn't let him have his way.

"What's the matter, un?" Deidara whispered to her as he kissed her neck again.

"I'm not comfortable with it," She mumbled as she gave him a quick peck to the cheek.

"Oh, alright," Deidara said. "I'll respect that."

"Thank you."

-

-

-

"Sai, Kakashi, Lee, you're all dismissed. Contact back to base when you find the team," Tsunade said.

"Yes ma'am." A group of voices said in unison as their owners left the Hokage's briefing room.

"Godspeed," She said softly when the door closed.

-

-

-

Right, so, Deidara and Sakura are obviously the opposite of Sasuke and Izanami. (Bastard Sasuke.)

Uh... I'm writing this at a very late hour for myself.

Uhm, Izanami is the Japanese Goddess of the Underworld. Izanagi is the god of the heavens or something. My Shinto mythology is rusty.


	13. Charged

"Right, we've located the other team, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said into his headpiece as he and his team walked into the clearing the 'Rescue Sakura' team was staying. Naruto was sitting outside of the canvas tents, waiting for them to arrive.

"Alright, Hatake-san, Naruto will tell you the rest of the details," Tsunade answered back. "Then you're all going to have to make up for the lost time,"

"Yes, ok." The silver haired man answered as Naruto got up and approached the other team. "Scare Crow _out._" Kakashi pulled out the head piece and put it in his knapsack as he stopped in front of Naruto with Lee and Sai trailing behind.

"Naruto," Kakashi said as the blonde looked at him with hardened eyes. "What's happened?"

"Sasuke ran away." He answered as he watched Lee and Sai take a seat around the burning embers. "And before he left, he hurt Neji, Shikamaru, and Izanami."

"Izanami?" Lee asked as he looked up at Kakashi and Naruto. "Who?"

"Our team mate."

"She's resting right now, keep the noise down," Ino said as she popped her head out of one of the tents. She looked up at Naruto and asked, "When are we leaving?"

"After I brief them," He replied to Ino, who nodded and disappeared behind the canvas of the tent. "Izanami was Sasuke's newest girlfriend, but the _bastard_ went and...and..." Naruto clenched his fists and looked away. The incoming team got the picture.

"Right, then." Kakashi said as he looked around. "Who's going after who?"

"I was thinking about that," Naruto said as he and Kakashi sat down on the dirt. "I was going to divide the girls among us,"

"Medics on each team?" Kakashi asked and Naruto nodded. "Aah,"

"I need to go after Sakura," Naruto said. "I need to bring Izanami with me, that's a given."

"What if we need her for Sasuke?" Lee inquired as he re-wrapped the bandages on his arms.

"Kakashi-senpai can have his hounds track his scent," Sai finally said. "Right?"

Kakashi nodded and asked, "Right, so I'll lead the Sasuke Retrieval Team. Ino should come with you since she's taking care of Izanami and Hinata—"

"Take Hinata with you." Naruto interrupted. "Her Byakuugan; it'll—"

"I know you're worried about her, but that's what I was just about to say," Kakashi said. "Don't worry."

"So where to Sai-san and I go with?" Lee asked as Sai ran his hand through hair.

"Sai will go with me," Naruto answered. "We can use his birds to patrol for Akatsuki,"

"Alright, dick less." Sai said. Naruto shot him a glare that made him look away. He and Kakashi both stood up and started taking down the guys' tent.

"Izanami's awake," Hinata called as she came out of the girls' tent. Izanami came out dressed in a fresh ANBU outfit looking a hell of a lot better than she was several hours previously. But the cuts she received from her chakra rope bindings were still bleeding into her bandages a bit.

"What's the plan?" Izanami asked as she pulled up her hair into a ponytail. Ino came out of the tent right after the darker haired girl did.

"We'll deconstruct camp and head out in separate teams after that." Naruto said. "Izanami-san, Sai, and Ino are heading with me. The rest of you are going with Kakashi-sensei.

"Alright," Ino said Sai and Lee got up from where they were sitting. Sai did a one-over on Izanami and did a mental note not to insult her. The teams quickly tore down their camp and were about to leave each other.

"Be safe, Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she kissed his cheek. Naruto hugged her tighter than he already was and nodded.

"You too, promise?" Naruto said as he kissed her forehead. The darker haired girl nodded as they kissed each other. The rest of the teams were already mapping out the rest of the area.

"Sasuke's heading North West. That's a few kilometers shy from our target in Iwa, but splitting up from there will be difficult," Izanami announced after activating her eyes. "Nin from Iwa don't take too kindly to intruding shinobi." She blinked and the teams watched as her eye color morphed back to normal.

"That means we're going to be traveling West." Ino said as Hinata and Naruto separated into their teams. Naruto and Kakashi both nodded to each other.

"Good luck," Kakashi said, and he and his team started off in their direction. Naruto and his team stood there for a moment.

"Right, let's go," Naruto said as the four ninja disappeared into the trees, going their fastest in their hopes to catch up with Sakura in time.

-

-

-

Sakura was rudely shaken awake by Deidara by the time they had to leave once again.

"What?" She snapped as Deidara jumped to dodge her kick. She sighed as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Oh, Dei-chan," She said with a small smile, remembering the night before. "Sorry, I—"

"Get up, un. We're leaving," He said as he shot a glare at her and turned away to finish packing his things. Sakura raised an eyebrow at this and looked around. Itachi was rolling up his sleeping bag. Deidara was dusting off his cloak and looking at her every once in a while. Sakura flushed slightly.

Did she do something to make him angry last night?

Sakura crossed her arms as she packed her things as fast and neatly as possible. She finished packing a minute later as Deidara and Itachi were putting their knapsacks on their backs. She imitated their action and waited for Itachi to come up with the plan for today.

"We keep going the same pace as we were the day before," The Uchiha stated. Sakura nodded and stole a glance towards the blonde. He looked...Tired? Sakura couldn't exactly put her finger on his mood at the moment.

Maybe he was angry with her.

"Let's go," Itachi said as he and Deidara disappeared into the trees. Sakura followed them a second later and caught up quickly. As they hopped branches, Sakura couldn't help but ask herself why he was mad at her.

Maybe all he really wanted from her was sex or something.

Or maybe she was dreaming and he was still bent about yesterday.

Sakura knit her pink brows as she realized something.

_Why was I dreaming about kissing Deidara?_

She blushed to herself as she thought about how vivid the dream was. All of the heat, the romance, and the _passion_. She closed her eyes and shook her head, thinking that she might've soaked up too much hot water during her bath. Sakura sighed as she and her partners kept going, but all she could really think about was the man with the blonde hair in front of her.

-

-

-

"I'm going to summon Pakkun." Kakashi said to Hinata and Lee. "But he doesn't need to know how severe the situation is. We just need him to lead us in the right direction, so don't tell him anything Sasuke's done other than that he's left again."

"Ok."

"Yosh."

He pulled a blue shirt from out of his pocket and the nostalgia set in. He stared at the object in his hand with his tired eyes and let a sad sigh escape his lips behind the mask.

It happened again. How could he have let it happen _again?_

Kakashi closed his eyes.

_I am such a horrible teacher._

Kakashi sighed again as he handed the shirt to Lee. He then cut his thumb on his kunai and made a couple hand seals.

Poof.

"Hey, Kakashi." Pakkun said as he scratched his ear with his hind leg. "What's going on?"

"Sasuke's run off again." The Jounin answered. Pakkun tilted his head in confusion.

"As in left the village?"

"Yes."

"What?" Pakkun asked, astonished. "That little brat is going to get the death sentence if the village elders are pissed at him enough."

"We know."

Lee knelt down in front of Pakkun.

"Hello, dog-san, can you pick up Sasuke-kun's scent?" Lee asked as he held the shirt in his hand in front of Pakkun to sniff. Pakkun's nose twitched as the pug ran off in one direction. Kakashi, Hinata, and Lee quickly followed.

"He's heading North West." Pakkun replied as he pointed to the direction they would be following. Kakashi made a motion for Pakkun to lead the way.

"Hehe, try to keep up!" Pakkun joked as he led the 3-man team to the youngest Uchiha.

-

-

-

"Stop!!" Ino shouted as she skidded to a stop only a few feet away from a 500 foot drop into a raging river. The 3 other nin following her also came to a hault.

"Shit. The gap's too wide for us to jump." Naruto said as he guessed the distance from where they were standing.

_It's probably 200 feet wide..._

"Sai-kun, can't you use your birds to fly us across?" Ino asked as Sai considered the option.

"I can fly one person over at a time." Sai said. "It might be a little slow, however."

"It'll be faster than going around this damn thing, Sai." Naruto said as he made extended an arm to exaggerate how wide the gap it was.

"Fine." Sai finally said as he pulled out a blank scroll and his paint brush. He made a couple quick strokes and finished painting his bird. A hand seal and—

Poof.

The bird flew off the page and landed in front of Sai. He then helped Ino onto the back of the beast before getting on himself. After dropping her off on the other side, he came back to get Naruto. Finally, it was Izanami's turn. Izanami fidgeted slightly as she took Sai's hand and he lifted her onto the bird's back. She looked around nervously as Sai patted the bird's neck.

"I hate heights," She mumbled to herself as she closed her eyes tightly. "I hate heights, I hate heights, I hate—"

"Then, don't think about it." Sai said as he glanced back at the kunoichi. He noticed she was shaking a bit as the bird got off the ground. She did as he suggested and they made the flight over the canyon fine.

"I **hate** heights." Izanami hissed as she quickly scrambled off the bird and onto solid ground. Ino and Naruto chuckled to themselves.

"_Right._ Lead the way," Naruto said to Izanami as she shot a glare to the two giggling blondes. They immediately stopped laughing, resulting in Sai grinning to himself. Izanami shook her head at the team and took off like a bullet.

"Shit, I forgot how fast she was." Naruto cursed as he, Ino, and Sai all took off trying to catch up.

-

-

-

"How far are we?" Sakura asked Itachi as she ducked to avoid a low branch.

"Two days away." Itachi answered as he grabbed a branch and flipped himself onto it. Sakura quickly stopped a few branches down, followed by Deidara.

"Mou, Itachi-kun, what's the problem?" Sakura asked as Itachi looked around.

"Deidara, send a sentry into the air." Itachi said as Deidara grumbled and shoved his hand into his clay pouch. He let his hand chew on the clay before it spat out a miniature hawk. Deidara tossed it into the air and it came to life. The hawk then flew into the sky, disappearing behind the dark green forest canopy.

"Why'd you want me to do that, un?" Deidara asked as he rubbed his hands together.

"I have a feeling that the Leaf ANBU are close." Itachi said as he glanced around again. Sakura sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

"They're after me." Sakura murmured. "We've got to keep going, then."

"They probably have Iza leading the way to us." Deidara said as he crossed his arms. "Stupid, brat, traitor pri—"

"Enough." Itachi said, quieting Deidara. "Sakura's right. We've got to keep going or else they'll catch up to us."

"They probably have someone from the Hyuuga clan with them." Sakura said, getting worried. Neji's sight with the byakugan was incredible, and Hinata's was getting just as good.

"Then it's settled, we've got to go faster." Itachi said as he reached into his pocket. He produced a white plastic box and opened it. Itachi then tossed Sakura and Deidara each a yellow pill and took one out for himself.

Sakura inspected the pill as Deidara and Itachi both swallowed it.

"It's something the organization concocted." Itachi said as Sakura looked up at him curiously. "It's a little stronger than a soldier pill on stamina, but it will let you rest."

Sakura nodded as she quickly swallowed the pill as well. She glanced at Deidara afterwards and noticed how he had gone from looking exhausted to looking...wired.

"It's like caffeine from hell, basically. Better than steroids." Deidara said as Itachi made a motion for them all to start moving. The 3 rocketed through the forest and Sakura swore she had never felt so energetic.

_I hope these aren't addictive_. Sakura thought to herself as she watched the scenery go past her in a blur.


	14. Sentry

The sun set over the 5 Great Shinobi Nations, cutting short the teams' movement for the time being. Standard procedures were followed to ensure complete safety for the teams while they rested.

Dawn broke over the green receding forest that lingered on the Fire and Earth nations' borders. Light dripped into Tsuchi no Kuni, revealing the distinctive canyons and badlands of the area.

The Akatsuki trio trudged over the rocky terrain as the sun rose higher in the sky.

"We're half a day away." Itachi said as he helped Sakura onto a narrow ledge as they followed Deidara. They couldn't travel by sky at this point; the Shinobi of Iwa had their own air force at the ready. Deidara was leading them through Rock via secret areas. They couldn't risk a sighting.

"The Hachibi lives by the sea on the north western most area in a cave." Deidara said as the three jumped walked into an area with clay deposits all around. Sakura noticed something strange about it, however.

"The earth's been scorched recently," Sakura commented as she knelt down and picked up a mix of blackened clay and ash from what she guessed used to be some sort of plant.

"Are fires common?"

"Only when the Hachibi's PMSing, un." Deidara replied as he pulled out a kunai and started digging to the richer clays hidden by the uppermost layers of soil.

"What does that mean?" She asked as she stood up and clapped her hands together to remove anymore excess clay from her hands.

"The Hachibi's an evil, sardonic bastard of an 8 tailed dragon who's got a true fetish for lighting shit on fire, un." Deidara said as he picked up some deep red clay and pocketed it in a separate pouch on his hip.

"He destroys stuff for the fun of it, un. And does it quite frequently when someone or something pisses him off."

"Kind of like you, then." She said with a grin as Deidara glowered at her. She laughed as she looked up at Itachi.

"We should get going," He suggested, but Sakura noticed something else and ran to it.

"ADD much?" Deidara sighed as he got up and stood next to Itachi. Sakura was kneeling in front of a large plant that seemingly escaped the flames. She pulled a kunai out of her pouch and started chopping all the leaves off.

Itachi started walking towards Sakura, and Deidara couldn't help but follow.

"What are you doing?" Deidara asked as he watched Sakura pull a needle and thread from her bag. She ignored his question and tugged her cloak off. Sakura began to then sew the leaves to her cloak at an alarming pace; a skill she picked up from years of having to stitch people back together at the hospital.

She soon ran out of leaves to sew to her coat, and quickly scanned the area for another plant. To her delight, there were dozens growing around her. Sakura got up and moved to the next plant, and repeated the process she had already started.

"What is she doing?" Deidara asked Itachi, who, replied with a simple shrug. Sakura soon had enough leaves to finish her cloak and add a hood onto of it. Sakura finally looked up at her two team mates as she put the cloak on.

"Right, are you done _trying_ to look stylish, un?" Deidara sighed as Sakura looked at Itachi.

"Itachi-kun, hit me with your _best_ fire jutsu." She said.

"Why?" Itachi asked as Deidara looked at Sakura like she was crazy.

"Just do it, I'll explain later." Sakura said as she pulled the hood over her head. Deidara shook his head.

"Are you _insane_, woman?" Deidara asked as he glanced over to Itachi, who was making the seals for his Fire Release: Ultimate Fireball Technique. His eyes widened in horror.

"Are you _nuts!?" _He practically squealed to Itachi. "That's an S-Ranked jutsu; you're going to burn her to a crisp!!"

"I _know_ what I'm doing!" Sakura shouted as she moved far enough so that the fire wouldn't touch Deidara and Itachi. Itachi finished his lands hand seal and inhaled. Sakura waited for impact. Deidara watched in horror as Itachi exhaled and spat out an enormous ball of white flames at Sakura.

"Sa-SAKURA!!" Deidara looked back at Itachi. "Kami, what the _fuck_ have you done!?" He exclaimed as he tried to run to save her, until Itachi held him back.

"Watch." Itachi said as he pointed to Sakura. The flames quickly receded as she flipped her cloak quickly over her shoulder, putting out the rest of the flames. The kunoichi was completely unharmed.

"Y-You…!!" Deidara stammered as Sakura brushed off her cloak. "How did you **do** that!?"

Sakura smiled as she held her cloak up. "Zetsu taught me about the flora in Iwa. The fire lily leaves are supposed to be able to withstand even Kage-level fire. I suppose we can use it against Hachibi, mm?"

Deidara stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, before he turned away with a huff muttering profanities under his breath.

"I suppose we can, Sakura." Itachi said as he started helping Sakura collect the leaves of the fire lilies. Deidara stood still for a moment before letting out a sigh and helping out.

-

-

-

Izanami scanned the skies as Naruto refilled their canteens at the mouth of a waterfall Ino found. The sky was blue like always, but then her keen eyes noticed that something was out of place; there was a white hawk flying overhead.

"Shit." She cursed as she quickly dragged Naruto by his collar through the leaves to Ino and Sai where they were boiling the water. The dense cover of the forest effectively blocked any aerial view of them.

"Put the fire out, _quick!"_ Izanami hissed quietly as he covered Naruto's mouth to keep him from yelling at her.

"There's an enemy sentry in the sky." She said as she watched and pointed to the hawk circle over the trees. Sai quickly stomped the fire out as quietly as he could.

"How can you tell?" Ino whispered as Izanami released Naruto, who, rubbed his mouth and looked up at Izanami curiously.

"It's a _white_ bird that's _way_ too big to be a dove." She stated. "When are you _ever_ going to see one those in the middle of _summer?_"

The group was quiet as they looked up into the sky and watched the hawk circle around before flying off into a different direction.

"It's gone…" Ino said as she looked at the pot of almost clean water.

"Who's sentry was that?" Naruto asked. "Could you tell?"

"Akatsuki." She replied. "It's one of Deidara's birds."

Naruto wrinkled his nose at the memory of the explosion crazed blonde who looked like a girl.

"Do you think they know that we're following them?" Ino asked as Sai started to rekindle the fire for disinfecting the water.

"More than likely." She said as she brushed her Naruto-drool covered hands on her pants. "Itachi-sen—"

She paused for a second, and only a second before picking up where she left off.

"Itachi is an intelligent man, he's probably figured out that we're not that far away."

Only Naruto noticed the would-have-been suffix, but he said nothing of it.

"That means we've got to be really close to them." Sai said as he poured the now hot water into the canteens.

"We can catch up to them in no time." Naruto said as he looked up at the sky. "We'll probably be in Iwa later today."

"Alright, so let's finish up here and hurry up to Iwa." Ino smiled as she got up and started repacking their supplies.

-

-

-

"For someone who's lived here, shouldn't you know about the plants?" Sakura asked as she scooted further into the shadow of a large boulder as she sewed leaves into Itachi's cloak. Itachi was sitting next to Sakura, taking off the outer skin of a few edible cacti he found.

"I was an arsonist, not a gardener, un." Deidara replied as he handed her another leaf.

"You actually seemed _concerned_ about my welfare." Sakura grinned as she tied a knot at the end of the string and freed her needle. "I didn't know that you _cared_."

"Fuck you, un." The insult tumbled out of his mouth without him meaning it. Sakura glared and almost stabbed him with the needle. Deidara rolled his eyes as he watched Itachi lean over and look at him.

"Don't you _start_ with the 'Oh, good job' and 'You really rock at this' or 'You're incredible!' crap you've been babbling on and on about." Deidara growled at Itachi. The darker haired man for once looked confused.

"He was going to hand you a prickly pear, Dei..." Sakura said as she took the now skinless fruit from Itachi and put it in Deidara's hand. "Jeeze, take a chill pill..."

Deidara sighed to himself as he bit the fruit. He handed Sakura another leaf before swallowing. It was quiet for a while as Deidara finished the fruit and looked at the two.

"Alright, ok, I'm sorry." The blonde apologized, earning a shocked look from Sakura, but Itachi remained unfazed as always. The Uchiha, however, did stare at Deidara, as did Sakura.

The three were quiet for a moment before Deidara went, "What, un?"

Sakura blinked before leaning over and whispering something to Itachi. The ninja considered her words for a moment before nodding once.

"Uh, ok. We forgive you." Sakura said with a smile.

Deidara grinned a little as he handed another leaf to her and noticed that his pile of leaves had dwindled down to only one.

"How many more do you need?" Deidara asked Sakura as he got up to cut more leaves.

"Just get me two." Sakura said as Deidara went over to the nearest plant a chopped off the required amount of leaves. Within a minute or two, Sakura was done with Itachi's cloak.

"We need to store these somewhere safe, though." Sakura said as she pulled out three extra white desert cloaks out of her bag. She neatly folded Deidara's, Itachi's, and her own leaf cloak and put it in her bag. Deidara took the white cloak from her and said, "Jeeze, got a _hat_ in there too?"

Sakura blushed as she pulled out a folded up beige sunhat from her backpack. Deidara's lip twitched before he burst into laughter. Sakura glared and put the hat away as Itachi merely shook his head and cloaked himself.

When the three were finally ready, they took off into the mountains again.

-

-

-

"We're hot on his trail." Pakkun said as he sniffed the torn bark of a tree. "He was here recently."

"Let's keep going, then." Kakashi said as Lee inspected the surrounding trees.

"Dog-san, most trees in the area seem to have ripped bark." Lee stated as Hinata turned her Byakugan on.

"He's right. They lead into different directions, too." She said as she turned around to get a 360 degree view. Kakashi noticed the anomaly as well and ran his fingers over the wood of one tree.

"He's marking the trees. He's trying to lead us the wrong way." Kakashi said as he looked down at Pakkun.

"We can't afford to split up." Kakashi said as he bit his thumb again and performed several hand signs for a summoning jutsu.

_Poof poof poof poof—_

4 of Kakashi's ninkin appeared infront of him.

"Hey, Kakashi." The one with glasses greeted. "What's up?"

"We need you to track Sasuke." Kakashi said as he looked around. "He's trying to lead us in different directions. I need you guys to split up for us and tell us where he's going.

"One of you guys in 4 different directions, Pakkun and my team will travel down the path he was supposed to be taking. Inform me as soon as you can if you find any trace of him. Go!"

"Right!" The four dogs said as they took off into the trees. Kakashi and his team soon followed suit as Pakkun started leading them west once again.

-

-

-

"We're almost there, I can _feel_ it, un." Deidara said as the three Shinobi raced over a clearing.

"Yeah, well, the smell of smoke kind of is a dead-give away." Sakura said with a grin. They were running near the coastline of Iwa now. Seagulls soared through the air and the smell of ocean water and smoke mixed together was making Sakura a little dizzy.

"We should take the cloaks out in a bit." Itachi said as they hopped over a charred boulder. A fierce roar in the distance shook the ground as Sakura watched a jet of flame erupt out of nowhere.

"Yep. He's pissed at something, un." Deidara smirked as he looked at Sakura who was looking a bit nervous.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, un." Deidara said, offering Sakura a reassuring smile. She smiled back a bit, but she couldn't help but feel like something terrible was going to happen.

It was probably that damned persistent pessimism in her.

-

-

-

Right, next chapter's gonna be good, I promise. Or, it will be horrible. I don't know, you guys tell me when I put it up. I gotta get to writing it.

Also, there are a few chapters missing now because I combined a couple when I was editing the story. So don't worry. :D

Toodles.


	15. Kamikaze

"What do you _mean_ we _'can't pass'_!?" Naruto growled dangerously at the rock ninja guarding the border of their village. Naruto and his team had _finally_ arrived at the village hidden in the rocks, only to be stopped by several border guards.

"The village is under high security under the moment, sir." The Shinobi answered. "We need to check your papers and—"

"We don't have _time_!" Naruto shouted at the guard. "We're on an important mission, we've been sent by the Kage from Konoha!"

"I'm sorry, but we still need to see your papers and check that you are indeed leaf nin." The one of the men replied as he held out a hand for the papers. Naruto growled as Sai handed over a note. The ninja opened the note; it was blank except for the wax seal at the bottom. He stared at the letter before he took out a key, held it against the note, and charged it with a certain amount of chakra; it lit up the letters that only showed up when the note was charged up with energy.

"We cannot allow you to go onward with your mission until tomorrow." The ninja said, handing back the letter. Naruto glared dangerously at the man as he explained himself, "For security measures, we cannot allow anyone from Leaf past Iwa until they see the Tsuchikage, and we must search you."

"That's _bullshit."_ Naruto growled as Ino put a hand on his shoulder. The girl shook her head and said, "It's ok, we'll have time to rest. We'll need all of that if we want to catch up with them."

Naruto considered that option and begrudgingly agreed. The guards searched the team before moving aside, allowing them to pass into the city. As the team was led across the crowded bridges of the city by one of the border ninja, he spoke up:

"You'll find an inn near the center of the city where you can stay the night." He said as he snaked through the crowd with the team following close by.

"Ah, alright, thanks." Ino said as she nodded. "Do you by any chance have a spare map on you?"

The guard shook his head as he glanced back at the 4 masked ANBU. Ino sighed as they kept walking through the densely populated street. The 5 trudged on until they reached the large tower that contained the Tsuchikage. The border guard slid a key into the hole of the door and led the 5 through the even more crowded workspace that was the bottom floor of the tower. The ninja led the team up several flights of stairs until they ended up at the door of the Tsuchikage.

"Ne, who is it?" A voice answered after the border guard knocked on the door.

"Kain, one of the border guards. A team from Konoha requests audience with the Tsuchikage." The Nin answered. "They have been searched and their note confirmed."

There was a silence before the door slid open. The border guard stood aside to let the ninja in.

"Take a seat, take a seat." The Tsuchikage said with a friendly tone as he sat down at his stone desk. "What brings you here to Iwagakure?"

"We're on a retrieval mission." Naruto spoke as he and his team sat on the chairs before the desk. The man nodded as he did a one over of the team.

"May I ask you who you are intending to retrieve?" The older man asked. Naruto shook his head.

"We're not allowed to discuss any information about who we're to recover other than among ourselves." Sai stated as the Tsuchikage nodded.

"I'm sure your Hokage wouldn't want that." He said with a smile. "Well, you all rest up; you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow, ne?"

"Thank you." Ino said as the 4 got up and left the Hokage tower. When they were at the Inn, Naruto laughed and commented that the Tsuchikage was '_So _damn _short!' _before they all went to bed.

-

-

-

Sakura and Itachi skidded to a stop as Deidara came to a sudden halt.

"The wind's blowing downwind." The blonde noticed as he watched his hair fly in the almost violent wind coming from the sea. The current in the air was blowing _at_ the ninja, not away. This was good because that meant that the Hachibi wouldn't be able to sniff them out. Deidara glanced at the crashing waves lining the rocks for a moment before looking back at his partners.

Sakura was quiet for a moment before she glanced at the flames that were being belched from the Hachibi in the distance. She momentarily glanced down at her cloak, silently praying that the information Zetsu had given her about the leaves were true.

"We've got to mask our chakra if we want to get any closer, un." Deidara continued as the three concentrated on concealing their energy as best as they could. The three then proceeded over the rocky hill cautiously. Sakura crawled over the stone as she peered over the hill. The kunoichi's eyes widened as she saw the beast.

The Hachibi was a fearsome maroon Japanese style dragon, with one head and 8 tails whipping around in agitation. It stood in the middle of the flat terrain, right next to the edge of a dissected plateau. Sakura noticed that at end of every one of it's' tails was colored differently; but Sakura didn't have time to think about what that meant.

"I'm going to take from the skies and start throwing bombs at it." Deidara said, interrupting Sakura's thoughts. "When it's distracted, you guys start chopping off its' tails."

"We've got to get at least 6 off before we can seal it." Itachi noted as Deidara pulled out a lump of clay from out of his clay pouch and had the mouth on his hand mould it into a bird.

"Alright." Sakura said as Deidara set down his bird and made a quick hand seal.

_Poof—_

"As _soon_ as its' distracted, I need you both _down_ there already and hacking off lizard tails." Deidara said as he climbed onto the back of his bird. Sakura watched as Deidara flew off and began to circle the demon. She glanced at Itachi who motioned for the two to move as soon as Deidara started raining bombs onto the demon. Sakura and Itachi both bolted towards the demon as it began to spit fire at Deidara.

Sakura clutched the hilt of the sword Itachi gave her before they left the Akatsuki compound. During her stay, he taught her how to properly swing a sword, and now she was putting her new skills to use. As they neared the demon, Sakura quickly dodged one of the dragons' massive tails as it slammed into the ground, easily crushing the earth below.

"**DEIDARA—" **The Hachibi roared as he pestered the dragon with his bombs. "**WHY DON'T YOU COME DOWN AND _FIGHT_ ME!?**"

"I THINK IT'S FUNNY THAT YOU'RE YELLING AT ME!" Deidara shouted back as he clonked the demon on the head with a bomb, causing it to spit a ball of fire at him, with Deidara fully dodged.

Sakura quickly jumped onto the demons' tail and headed for the middle. She looked around for a sign of Itachi as she ran up the tail. Sakura watched as her gaze finally found Itachi, and she witnessed him slice through the dragons' tail as if it were butter with his blade. He looked up at her and motioned her to make her move, which she quickly did. She charged the blade with chakra, just like how he taught her to, and ripped through the demon's tail. Sakura quickly moved away from the falling tail and started hopping for another tail.

.:.:.

The Hachibi howled in pain as it whipped around to look for his attackers. Deidara cursed as he hurled a bomb at the dragon's neck and detonated it so its attention would return back to him. But Deidara's attempt was in vain; it quickly threw both Sakura _and _Itachi off its' tails. The two slammed into the side of the plateau, causing plumes of dust to fly from where they landed.

"Hachibi!" Deidara yelled as he desperately tried to lead the demon away from his partners. "_I_ am your opponent, _fight me_ you _coward!!_"

"**You're not _worth_ fighting,**" The dragon responded as it made its way towards the plateau. "**I _hate_ flappy things, they're not _tasty_. However, I did _smell_ a ripe young maiden with you, and I think she would make a _nice_ snack.**"

Deidara began to panic as he quickly sent more bombs at the dragon's back. Though the Hachibi was in pain from the bombs, he began to search for Sakura. The plateau was still throwing out dust from the craters Sakura and Itachi made as they landed.

"**Pretty girl, where _are_ you?**" The Hachibi chanted evilly as he prowled through the dust. Suddenly, Sakura tore through the red dirt cloud onto the Hachibi's neck. She had been flung towards the demon by Itachi, and while the Hachibi was preoccupied with shaking Sakura off so that he could eat her, Itachi began making his way towards the tails.

Deidara, realizing that the Hachibi didn't care about him anymore, jumped off of his bird and dived towards the demon. The bird began to fly around, scratching it over and over with its' sharp clay talons. With one massive jerk of its body, however, the demon managed to shake Sakura off again, sending her flying.

"**I am going to _roast_ you, you little _pest!!_**" The Hachibi roared at Sakura. Deidara landed on the demons back and watched in horror as the demon inhaled.

"_SAKURA!_ _GET UNDER YOUR DAMN HOOD_!" Deidara shouted as the demon exhaled. Sakura was quick enough and pulled her hood over her head as she was engulfed in the fire. His heart skipped a whole beat as he watched Sakura descend to the ground.

With one swift movement, she flipped over the side of her cloak, knocking the oxygen away from the fire, effectively putting it out. Sakura continued to freefall as she opened her cloak slightly using it as a makeshift parachute. The Hachibi observed what happened and noticed the fire lily leaves that were sewn onto their cloaks. Fire dangerously crackled from the beasts' mouth, angry that he had obviously aided the ninjas when he set that valley on fire several weeks ago.

"Damn it, are you alright!?" Deidara called as Sakura called back with a 'Yeah!'

Itachi was busy sawing at another tail as Sakura landed on the ground softly. Hachibi growled dangerously as she disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and reappeared right next to its left hind leg. The demon quickly climbed up the side of the plateau so that Sakura wouldn't be able to get back onto its' back that easily. Sakura yelped as she narrowly dodged an attack from the Hachibi's snapping jaws. Deidara quickly ran over to the nearest intact tail and stuffed clay into the empty spaces between the scales. He moved away onto the same tail as Itachi and made his detonation seal.

"_Katsu!_" He yelled as the bomb exploded, resulting in a bloody mess of what was the dragon's tail. Then, the tail Itachi was working on fell as well, earning another pained howl from the demon. Sakura finally caught the edge of one of the demons' tails before it shook Deidara off in anger. Sakura, who had barely gotten a hold of the demon, flew the furthest.

Itachi deliberately jumped off the demons stub of a tail to get to another, until he was knocked away from another tail. The Hachibi was smart; he could _tell_ that this was an Uchiha he was fighting with, so as Itachi flew, he avoided his gaze as stealthily inhaled. Before Itachi could react, the demon exhaled a jet of fire. The unprotected part of Itachi's cloak caught fire, forcing the ninja to discard of it. He flung the burning thing into the ocean that they were all dangerously close to as he landed gently, skidding to a stop.

.:.:.

"**Your Amatseru won't work on me, Uchiha**!" Hachibi roared at Itachi, avoiding his gaze altogether. "**Do you _really_ think that your _fire_ jutsu will work on a _fire_ demon?**"

Itachi glared as he noticed that the black flames of his jutsu were _not _appearing the way he wanted them to. So, instead of wasting time and chakra, the Shinobi started heading towards the demon again. Deidara and Sakura were already working their way back onto the demons' back. A tail had managed to hit Sakura with near full force and sent her flying towards the edge of the plateau.

"Damn it!" Deidara cursed as he watched how dangerously close Sakura was to the edge. One good sweep of the Hachibi's tail, and the girl was done for. There were jagged rocks around the coastline of Iwa with brutal waves and even more monstrous creatures lurking in the water. Sakura growled as she tried moving her left arm. A sharp pain ran up her arm as she realized that she had landed wrong and broke it.

"Shit!" She cursed as she looked up at the demon that was looming dangerously over her. Before it could make one of its tails knock Sakura off the edge into the unforgiving ocean, Itachi quickly scooped her into his arms and ran off.

"Fix your arm—" Itachi said as he dodged one of the demons' tails as he tried heading inland. Sakura was doing just that, but she was shaking a little.

"I'm going to throw you onto one of the demons tails again, understood?" Itachi told her as she finished mending her bones. She nodded, and Itachi gave her a countdown.

"3...2...1..." Itachi counted before flinging Sakura towards the demon. The Hachibi noticed this and growled treacherously as it began spitting fireballs at Itachi. The Uchiha quickly countered them with his own fire techniques, quickly canceling out the two. The dragon demon roared as it began to swallow rocks from the plateau.

"Oh shit." Deidara cursed as he watched Sakura caught a hold of one of the tails. She slid down the scales down to its' base and began reaching for her other backup sword as hers was buried under the rubble in the craters she and Itachi left behind in the rock. Deidara threw another bomb at the Demon's neck, but missed. He cursed but detonated the bomb anyway, so as to distract the demon as Sakura stabbed the tail and started cutting through the flesh.

"**You're done for, _girl._" **Hachibi growled threateningly as he turned around and flung the two Nin off of its' back. Deidara was caught by his bird, but Sakura skidding dangerously close to the edge of the plateau. The demon opened its' mouth and began to spit out molten boulders. Sakura swiftly regained her footing and dodged the fireballs.

"Damn it!" Sakura cursed as a boulder nearly hit her. The Hachibi was soon out of rocks to spit and was heading straight towards Sakura, fully intending on eating her. Itachi was bent on getting to the girl first as she ran along the edge of the plateau for the demon was blocking her path inland. The elder Uchiha quickly caught up to Sakura as the dragon spit out a ball of fire at her. He quickly caught her and switched directions to avoid the flames, but the demon quickly swished two of its remaining tails towards them, trapping the two. Itachi didn't have time to react when one of the tails slammed into them with full force.

Deidara growled as he pulled out an enormous lump of clay, hopefully it would be enough to turn the demons' attention away, even for a split second because Itachi and Sakura were sliding through the rock at an alarming speed. He molded the clay as fast as he possible could and threw it down by the demon. Hachibi fully ignored the bomb, even when Deidara detonated it as he set his sights on Itachi and Sakura. Deidara panicked when the bomb appeared to have no effect on the demon and looked at the dragon's 3 remaining tails. He just needed to blast off one more and then he could seal the demon.

Deidara quickly sent a clay falcon for the demons' tail, and when it landed on it, he set off the bomb. The dragon let out a ripping howl of pain as another one of his tails landed in the ground, detached from its' body.

"**YOU!**" Hachibi roared in anger as it looked at Deidara, who was flying well out of range for the demon to snap him. "**I AM GOING TO _EAT_ YOUR COMPANIONS WHILE YOU _WATCH!_**_"_

"Ugh," Sakura groaned as she rose from the rubble. Itachi had taken most of the blow for her; she was fine except for a few scrapes from the rock. However, where was Itachi? She quickly scanned the surrounding area and was horrified to realize that he was teetering extremely close to the edge.

"Oh _fuck_." Deidara muttered as he watched Sakura running over to Itachi and the dragon hell bent on devouring the ninja. He noticed something strange about the Uchiha however; he _wasn't_ moving. Sakura noticed this as well when she got to Itachi and checked for his vitals. They were fine; he was breathing and his heart was beating, but she guessed that he had been knocked out because of the force of the blow. She noticed he was in pain; he probably broke some ribs. Sakura quickly dragged him a bit further inland and mended several of his bones as fast as she could. She was so concentrated on healing Itachi that she didn't notice the demon's tail heading straight for them.

"_SAKURA! MOVE!_" Deidara screamed, but he was too late. The tail caught both Itachi and Sakura, sweeping them off the edge. His eyes widened in horror as he had his bird fly as fast as it could to the edge where they were. Sakura was clinging onto the edge with one hand, and she had Itachi in the other. The Uchiha was still out, however. The Hachibi noticed that Sakura was still alive and it made its' way towards the edge where she was before Deidara could fly underneath his partners and catch them.

"_LOOK OUT!_" Deidara shouted as the Hachibi spat fireballs at Sakura. She let go of the ledge and caught another to hang onto. But the rock was slippery, and she struggled to hold on.

"Shit!" Sakura cursed as she tried using chakra to get a better grip, but it was hopeless. With one hand, she wouldn't be able to concentrate enough chakra to hold herself _and_ Itachi. The Hachibi loomed over the edge and let out a jet of fire from his mouth. Sakura's eyes widened as she was forced to release her grip on the rock. As she fell, she attempted to dodge another fireball, but lost her grip on Itachi in the process.

"_ITACHI!_" Sakura yelled as she realized he was _still _unconscious. She couldn't land on the water using chakra from the height she was falling from otherwise she'd shatter her leg bones. However, she as she fell closer to the monstrous waves, she was quickly caught by Deidara's bird. Sakura got the wind knocked out of her when it retrieved her and started diving for Itachi. Sakura's eyes widened as she looked up for Deidara. The only person on the birds back was her; Deidara was busy working on the Hachibi. He was starting to seal it to a special scroll they had been given before they left for the mission. The bird Sakura rode tried diving faster but it really couldn't; it was a retrieval bird, not an attack bird, therefore it wasn't designed to cut through wind like Deidara's hawks were.

The bird was so close to catching Itachi—it was so near that Sakura could've jumped and caught him, but all of a sudden, a 100 foot face of a wave caught the Uchiha and he disappeared beneath the rush of water. Sakura caught her breath for a moment to let what just happened sink in, before she jumped off the birds' back to get Itachi. However, the bird caught her in it's' mouth and started circling the surface of the water for any sign of the Uchiha.

.:.:.

"NO! _ITACHI!"_ Sakura screamed as she realized Deidara had commanded the bird to keep her safe after retrieving her. Moreover, it _wouldn't_ release her. She looked back at the where Deidara was and realized he didn't know what was happening; he was too concentrated on sealing the thrashing demon. She tried screaming to him, but her calls were overpowered by the roaring wind and waves. Sakura looked down at the water again, looking for Itachi. To her horror, there was no indication that the man was in the water or not. She nearly started crying when the bird was beckoned back by Deidara; he had successfully sealed away the demon. He now had the large scroll strapped to his back as the bird started heading towards him, but the demon that said something to him that left him a bit shaken.

"Sakura, un." Deidara said as he caught her when the bird deposited the Kunoichi. She turned around and started for the edge of the cliff again, but Deidara quickly caught her. Confused, Deidara had his bird turn around and to his dismay it had no other riders.

"Itachi..." She cried as she spun around to look at Deidara. Her lip quivered as she tried to find the right words. Deidara slowly pieced the puzzle together and felt his heart sink when he figured out what happened. Sakura tried to break from the blonde's grip, but he held her fast.

"We can't look for him, un." Deidara said slowly, as if he was trying to doubt himself. "The water— we'd get swept away."

"Can't you use your clay to _find_ him?" Sakura asked desperately as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. "We've got to _find him!"_

Deidara quickly made a hand seal to shrink the bird that had saved Sakura from falling and quickly separated it into two. He had used up almost all of his clay to distract the Hachibi, but he had enough to make a fresh bird and a fish. When he finished making the fish, he flung it over the edge. It increased in size as it fell and landed with a large splash. Sakura watched, shaking as the fish dove into the water, searching for Itachi. Deidara bit his lip as he put his arm around Sakura to help her stop shaking. Minutes passed by, but it felt like an eternity for her when the fish rose from the water.

"Where is he!?" Sakura shrieked as she noticed the fish didn't have anyone with it. "I-it doesn't _have _Itachi!"

Deidara watched in a silent horror as the fish jumped out of the water and shrank back to its original size. He quickly caught the fish and examined it. Sakura burst into tears as she watched Deidara pull out Itachi's ring from the wet clay.

"He's _can't_ be gone!" Sakura screamed as she tugged off her coat and got up to jump into the water, but Deidara immediately stopped her and put her on his shoulder just like the first time they officially met and carried her away from the edge. Sakura slammed her fists into Deidara's back.

"What are you doing!?" She yelled as tears fell from her eyes. "We **have** to save him! He _can't_ die! He—"

"Sakura!" Deidara yelled as he dropped her onto the ground and knelt in front of her. "The waves are _monstrously_ huge, un. Their faces _will_ swell past 100 feet. And you will _drown_ if I let you dive into the water."

Sakura was shaking horribly as she realized that there was truly nothing she could do to save Itachi. She stared at her hands before she started crying harshly again. Deidara watched her for a moment before wrapping his arms around her and let her cry on his shoulder.

"Itachi..." The kunoichi sobbed as she locked her arms around the blonde's neck. He didn't cry—He couldn't bring himself to cry in front of her. He didn't want to make her feel even worse as he gently pushed her away. She looked at him helplessly as he opened the palm of her small hands and put Itachi's ring in her hand.

"He could still be alive." Deidara said as she tried staring down at the ring, but she couldn't bear the sight of it and closed her fingers around it. She looked up at him with a glimmer of hope in her green eyes.

"There's an extremely small chance that he's still alive. But he could be _anywhere_ in the ocean now." He stated as he stared out at the ocean. Sakura nodded weakly as she put the ring on her finger and tried her best not to start crying again. Deidara took a deep breath in and pulled her onto his lap. She sniffed and felt her tears threatening to spill over the edge.

"Just let it out..." Deidara said as he rubbed her arm. And she did. She turned around in his lap and cried on his shoulder again. Deidara looked back out to the ocean.

_There's no way that that fucker could've died, un._ He felt like he was lying to himself as Sakura wept on his shoulder. He was rubbing her back as she cried and looked down at the ground.

_I could've saved him._ He thought as he stared at the craters strewn across the area. The two started blaming themselves for what happened, and they stayed that way for a long time. Sakura soon stopped crying and was sitting in Deidara's lap, mulling over what she could've done. The two were silent until Deidara gently pushed Sakura away so that she was looking at him. Her face was stained with her tears and her eyes were red.

"We have to get going, un." He said when she looked back out to the vast ocean. "We can't let his death be in vain."

Sakura nodded feebly as he pulled out a pre-constructed traveling bird and set it a few feet away from them. As it expanded in size, Sakura quickly healed Deidara's scrapes and cuts, as well as a few of her own. Deidara then rose to his feet and carried Sakura in his arms. She was dead tired, and as was he, but as he carried her onto the bird's back, he realized that she had passed out. He figured that she had drained enough of her chakra away from cutting off the demons' tails _and_ healing. The blonde held her in his lap as the bird started flying off to a safe mountain where they would rest for the night.

Deidara looked down at the girl and gently patted her hair as she slept on his lap. He looked back out to the now almost red colored ocean and the setting sun as he landed the bird at the mouth of a mountain cave he found. Deidara knit his brows as he got off; the color of the ocean vaguely reminded him of Itachi's eyes. He then looked at Sakura as he picked her up and got off the bird. The clay creation proceeded into the cave where it lay down, and allowed a small curve for Deidara to rest. As he once again pulled the kunoichi onto his lap, he sighed as he closed his eyes and got some rest, despite the guilt that was probably going to haunt both Sakura and Deidara for the rest of their lives.

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Questions?

Don't stab me with a pitchfork! He _might_ be alive! Gah! D:

And yeah, I combined a couple chapters in the beginning, that's why there's...Uhm. Less than there used to be.


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